Phil, not a dumb question. Cannot say about the black uglies from anyone else, just myself. I regard it as a temporary solution to use, pending other pots and growing media for the plants.

Over this last week, I've been potting or REpotting both, and it cheers me up to see nice colorful containers. With hosta, one size does not fit all, so having appropriate sizes is a bit of a gamble. I have heavier ceramic and clay pots, which I like to treat as decorative stuff, because they would be awfully hard to move if needs-be. So I just set the liner and plant down inside the decorative pot.

Most of my corrugated wavy black plastic stuff is emptied out and taken back to my favorite local nursery. Or, I give them to my neighbor lady, who uses them to pot up her day lilies when she has an annual sale.

Unable to resist the lure of pots and MiracleGro at WalMart, having gone in I swear for JUST A BOX OF SALT AND THE AMMONIA-----I spent over $300 for colorful pots and MiracleGro. And I'm down to a few cupfuls of dirt, and only have small pots and really big ones left. So when the next round of orders come in I'll have another shopping trip to do.

I know Ken says we southerners must not this year complain (as usual) about late delivery of plants from cold climes. However, I've really tested this out and discovered that most of the sellers are speeding up the shipping schedule due to the warmer weather even in their latitude. Having nice colorful pots for my new arrivals will be so cool.

1. Not all potted Hosta are pot bound. If it's got room and growing well why repot it?
2. Sometimes you are just waiting for a bed to be finished before it goes into the ground. A couple of weeks in the original pot won't make any difference.
3. Sometimes the plant has been repotted into a larger black nursery pot that has been cleaned and disinfected. Why buy a new pot?
4. Sometimes you take a picture of it on the day you bought it.
5. Not everyone lives in an old growth forest where you can go outside and dig a hole without any soil prep whatsoever and plant a Hosta.

Steve

I have about 1,000 growers pots. I usually have about 100 hosta in those pots at any given time sitting on the drive. New ones and extras for trading or giving away. When I get new bare root hosta, they go into a growers pot as soon as I get them. They stay in them until I decide where to plant them.

Hosta are better off being root bound as to being in a pot that is too big. Hosta can rot in a pot that is too big.

In the plant maintenance business, all plant are kept in growers pots which are set in decorative pots. Every plant you see in any bank, mall, doctors office are all done like this.

Growers pots come in very handy not only for extra hosta to go in but for propagating, moving from one house to another, giving plants away. All of my hosta eventually go in the ground as I make more room. If I lived in zones 8 or 9 I still wouldn't put hosta directly into decorative pots, they would stay in growers pots set inside of decorative pots. They make things easier, you get them when you buy plants locally, reusing them keeps them out of the landfill and they save money.

Yeah,I understand that all nursery pots are not root-bound;in fact I've had several that were so loose,and had very few roots,but they were the exception. But,those of you who put them into large ceramic,or terra cotta pots;how would you ever move them,with soil,and a large plant? I don't know about you all,but I don't have a crane! Oh,and about having lots of room in my forest;most of my half acre of property is on a steep hill(I mean falling down and rolling down) steep!! I still tuck in a new hosta here and there,and there are lots of those small places. I have a few places already marked with little flags. I just found a bunch of Frosted Mouse Ears hostas at my local nursery,so I am going to put one next to my Blue Mouse Ears hosta,under the shade of Lakeside Ripples! I'm going to sign off now before I get into more trouble! Lol! Phil

LOL Phil,

I always take pictures of my hostas when I get them home. Then, they stay in the nursery pot until I find a place for them. Since I over-buy, sometimes it takes until Fall to find a place for it. Or, sometimes, I just forget it's there.

Gesila

Phil, as you have probably seen, I do most of my hosta gardening in pots, out of necessity. I up-size the pot when warranted to allow the plant to grow closer to genetic potential. Right now I have a couple of 'Guacamole' in 5 gallon pots that need division and re-potting -I need some more for resale anyway- and I know it'll be a challenge to attempt to clean most of the old potting mix off the root bundle, but I'll quarter the plant before I attempt that. For my smaller divisions I prefer to use the square pots, they're a more efficient use of space, it's unfortunate they don't come in a size-equivalent to 2 and 5 gallon.

Pieter

Phil, what you see in some pictures here is due to the nature of hostaholics. We do it in the wrong sequence. Properly we should make a new bed first, but we do it backwards, read catalogs and order, go to nurseries and other sales, can absolutely not resist, and then pots are piling up at home. Then we have to decide to plant where, which plants to give away to make space, is so difficult, and there are then the black pots with hostas sitting and waiting, etc...
Bernd

Peiter, square pots DO come in two and five gallon sizes. I have a few, but they are hard to find. I always snatch up the ones at the nursery where I work but I don't get many. I forget what comes in them, some kind of conifer.

I always use nursery pots for plants that I am growing on, or that I don't have a place for just yet. For example, I dug up two hostas that had been traumatized by something, this spring, and weren't doing well. They will stay in pots recovering and when I deem them healthy enough, they will go back into the ground. Also babies are in nursery pots, which are free. All the black pot crowd are monitored and when they outgrow their containers, they either get planted or stepped up imto
bigger pots.

Decorative pots are for plants that are going to stay in them, or for annuals, in my garden.

Sandy

I keep some in nursery pots that I slip into decorative pots for the summer (the nursery pots are then buried in the ground somewhere to overwinter). I like to change things up in my garden design frequently, so I only plant one in the ground when I'm sure it's going to be that hosta's permanent home. I've also got some "planted" in the garden still in the nursery pots (large pots), and that is because of a vole issue. I'd rather have a hosta in a pot, even if it's not as happy as it would be in the ground, over one whose roots and crown are devoured by voles. I can't use poison in my garden because of my dogs, so its an ongoing dilemma.

Some of my clay ornamental pots, the terra cotta colored ones, not treated or fired for colder temps, sort of decompose in thin layers at the rim. One of them kept doing that for several years, and I left it alone until one day I had to move it. Hmmm, it sort of fell apart.

I have a couple of large terra cotta containers here in Mobile, with some similar damage to their rim areas, and I try not to move them around.

I'd dearly love to have the weather proof containers such as garden maven Gertrude Jekyll had for her plants. Too expensive for my blood.

Phil, you have a natural layering effect with your hills. I'm trying to create a garden where everything isn't at one level. I leave some of the hostas in the ugly black nursery pots because they are put on a stand and covered by the hosta in front of it. I do not want the pot to be seen so I don't care what the pot looks like.

It makes the garden look horrible in the winter though. I'm working on solving that issue this summer.

Gesila

I had success in cutting an inch off the bottom of the black plastic nursery pot and sinking the plant into a hole filled with compost. This allows me to water the roots during our local droughts as well as to apply slug stuff at the base of the plants. The roots expand into the compost as needed.
I leave a 2 inch lip above ground which disappears in the compost I put in the garden..it also indicates where the roots are during the winter /spring clean up

Frank, I thought I was the only one who hoards pots! I don't know if I'm up to 1000 yet though.

Deanna