Heuchera don't have much for a root system, and I think a 13" pot would be plenty big enough for Georgia Peach. I think a 10" pot would even be big enough for a full grown GP. Make sure the potting mix you use is good draining, heuchera don't like wet feet, especially in winter, but do like moist soil.

Karen

Esther, if you mean to use MiracleGro with moisture control, it might not work properly for plants liking good drainage. With hosta, that moisture control stuff is a game breaker, people have reported losing container plants because of it.

You've come so far, invested so much time and money in this project, I'd hate for it to turn sour on you now. I hope Ken Adrian weighs in on the advisability of mixing the potting mix with garden soil in a pot.

In NYC, how do you bring home bags of potting mix anyway? I gather you do not take the subway!

I can always use this potting soil to improve the contractor-grade clay soil that already in the Neighbor's Plot. It was on clearance for less than half it's usual price and very light to carry vs. the 30 lb. bags of garden soil I've been hauling home in my car.

Yes, Moccasin, people in Queens (even Manhattan) do own and use cars. Not everyone lives in a concrete jungle like Manhattan. Queens and Staten Island have many suburban like areas such as the one where I live. I could not live in a concrete jungle. Gotta have grass and trees around me.

Good, so the pot I bought will be big enough to house the Georgia Peach. With its substantial spread, I didn't want it on the ground where careless people and idiot "landscape people" (who broke a piece of my little Adirondack fencing around the hosta tree garden last night) might step on it. I figured putting it up in a pot would not only highlight its beauty, but protect its far-flung fronds.

Thanks guys!

"far-flung fronds" is waxing poetic, Esther! It is always great, brings a smile to my face, when someone's enthusiasm spills over into song. Good for you.

When you finish your labors, on the day you rest, please remember we are itching to see the results.

The pot is plenty big enough, but I'm concerned about what you're putting into it.
SOIL... from the ground.... should NOT go into pots. Period.
It will compact and become hard as a rock.

Also, heuchera require well drained soil. They will not tolerate wet feet. You'll want a courser potting medium of some sort.... or maybe add pine bark fines, or even sand. It has to be well draining.

I can get some other potting soil to mix with this weird potting soil, for sure. Or, I can just use the weird potting soil to improve the contractor's junk soil making up the Neighbor's Plot so far, in addition to the peat moss that's waiting to be added. All that's holding me back is waiting for the arrival of the extra 2 sections of the faux-flagstone fencing to arrive so I can tap it into the ground with my rubber mallet. That fence is to contain the improved garden soil so it doesn't just creep out onto the lawn out of the Plot.

I also have to drill some drainage holes into the bottom of this fiberglass pot. It even says to do so on the bottom! Strange that you buy a $17 pot and YOU have to first drill your own drainage holes. I've a good mind to drill several holes, then loop some fine airplane cable through 2 of them and then loop some around the base of one of the Obligatory Bushes so some clown doesn't decide they want a Georgia Peach to take home.

I should take some pics of the bare ground comprising the Neighbor's Plot, and then the transformation, to post here. I always enjoy seeing the pics posted here of such miracles wrought. Such creative designers be the Hostapeople!

"creative designers" includes you, Esther!

Remember how a tie-tac works with the bar end buttoned through a shirt button hole? That is the same principle of what sailors call a "deadman".....an object buried at right angles to the cable securing a vessel to its mooring. It resists being pulled out of the ground.

So you put the deadman in the soil beneath the pot with the cable running through a hole in the bottom of the pot, and attach another piece of metal...it could be an old metal kitchen spoon or anything non wood....to the pot end of the cable. Tie it to the deadman inside the pot too. If the holes are on the bottom of the container, you may wish to elevate it on 2 or 3 pot feet or bricks for better drainage.

I think that would deter all except the most determined plant snatcher. It would be easier to do the pot end of the deadman first, by the way, then bury the other end beside your obligatory shrub. Not a sign of its presence remains.

A cheap bicycle cable could work, right?

You could use orchid planting medium for your planter pot. Also, to stretch it a bit, mix in some perlite.

Yes, drill several holes (1/2" are good) and put the planter on "feet" to aid drainage.

Darn those people that make you have to worry about swiping your stuff :-(

Is there any natural light coming in the storage locker? If not, that might be a problem.

Deb

Moccasin--I'm having a bit of a hard time imagining your "deadman". It would be useful to have a diagram posted of such a thing. My concept was to loop a bicycle lock or other fine airplane cable through the holes in the bottom of the pot, then around the base of one of the Obligatory Bushes, with a tiny brass Masterlock.

Last year, I put a beautiful piece of Texas holey rock that I'd spent real time picking out in a pet store ($20) in the tree hosta garden as an accent. It lasted a few days, then disappeared. Should have locked it around the tree with a cable, but who knew someone would steal a ROCK?

It is indeed a shame that I have to worry about people stealing garden stuff, and it's not a "bad" neighborhood around here at all. Just takes one or two bad apples to make it so, as far as stealing garden stuff.

At least this is not Brooklyn, where immigrants from a certain country have been caught by my friends there and myself helping themselves to newly-planted plants in gardens, fruit from trees in friends' back yards, lawn furniture left on porches, etc. I remember a friend calling me the night I'd planted her garden with tuberous begonias and other choice plants. She wanted to know if I'd dug up the tuberous begonias. "Why do you ask?" I asked her, "And why would I possibly dig up what I just planted this afternoon?" Her husband later caught the perps trying to pick the fruit off his peach tree in the backyard. My friends would dearly love to put a half-barrel fountain in their front yard, but now won't bother. Good thing they don't wear dentures, who knows where those would end up? And you wonder why I'm so paranoid about my garden pots?

Some jerk the other night took one of my mom's clay garden edging pieces from her mailbox flowerbed and smashed it on the sidewalk for no good reason other than to be a donkey's rear. I won't display any of my garden statues in the front yard because of the fear of theft or being broken. I didn't feel this way when I lived in the city in Ohio. Here, a much smaller town, my hometown, I'm more afraid of theft.

Karen

Nope nope, Esther, I do not wonder why. A couple of years back, we had our own neighborhood "plant thief." She was going to start a nursery, in fact. She was apprehended with the loot after about the third theft. She had a mental problem, periodically went off her meds. While that was going on, I spray painted the trunk of every single plant HOT PINK. Also every pot base hot pink. She took my stepping stones as well.

I'll try to draw up a diagram or reference a source for you. If you circle through the pot bottom it might cause the pot to turn over. I'll see what I can find because it is very simple to do. All of my books are in storage now, and a very clear drawing of it is in Ashley's Book of Knots. Wonderful book.