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More Container Questions, z4 specific questions

14 years ago

Ok, so, I fell in love seeing Janice's Pineapple Upsidedown Cake in a pot. I went out on Sunday to get a pot JUST FOR my PUC.

But then in the garden tonight, I was looking at several varieties... noticing that they had a more prostrate form that would lend themselves nicely to being container grown.

I'm thinking like, Sweet Home Chicago, Striptease and several others.

So, here are my questions:

1. Overwintering. Here in MN, hostas in pots, left above ground are likely to not survive (as evidenced by me losing a Royal Standard in a whiskey barrel this winter). So, how to overwinter the pots in my area?

1b. If the answer is "bury it, pot and all", my question is, what if it's a glazed terra cotta or other similar material? Won't that crack?

1c. If the answer is "yes, it'll crack", what about potting the plant in a 2g nursery pot and then just dropping it into the "pretty" container??? Then the nursery pot can be buried... or should the plant be removed from the pot and overwintered in the ground?

2. What are your thoughts on using the potting soil additive like "Soil Moist". I've had decent luck with it in annual pots.

3. What else do I not know about this?

TIA!

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Comments (13)

arcy_gw
14 years ago
I have pots sunk in the ground that I plant annuals in. One of them is terra-cotta and has never cracked. A friend in Mpls. divides and pots up hosta every fall, sinks them all in his vegi garden for the winter then when he has his spring plant sale he pops them out and it works great for him. This way the plants all look tidy, round and fresh for his sale. As long as the pot has proper drainage it should be fine. Others will chime in and discuss crown rot I am sure. A glazed pot is going to get cruddy looking pretty fast, I would imagine.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
14 years ago
what is your soil ... in my sand.. i have buried pots.. THERE ARE NO DRAINAGE ISSUES ... you might think about it if you lack drainage ...

i talked with a potter at hosta college ... and FROM MEMORY ...

some pots are basically adobe ... fired simply to make them hard ... and have no glaze on the inside .. the problem with these pots is that they suck up water.. which expands on freezing .. and they break ...

on the other extreme are porcelain pots ... kilned to such extreme that they basically turn to rock ... and usually glazed inside and out ... as such. they do not absorb water ... and in theory.. should NOT crack ...

in my world.. as warped as it is .... i would rather put money into more hosta.. and when i do blow some on a pot.. i am NOT interested in rolling the dice to see if it will not crack ..

the simple solution is to do it pot in pot... take the pot to the recycle area.. and find a pot the neatly fits inside of it ... which means.. you can change the pots weekly if you want... an ever changing kaleidoscope of host in one pot ...

POTTING MEDIA is NOT soil .... learn how to build your own ...

in fall.. your hosta need to harden off to winter.. and need to dry out... especially ... when planted in a high peat media ... ergo.. water absorbent goo MAY NOT be the greatest thing on the roots ... i suppose it too will expand on freezing ... its all about the potential for rot .. and reducing such ... i am telling you the variables only.. as i have no hands on regarding such ...

another big issue would be fertilizer in a container.. applied to late.. so that your hosta continue to grow vegetatively late into the season.. instead of slowing down and hardening off ...

if it were me... i would simply dump them out of the pot in late sept ... and plop them into the ground.. presuming they are large enough not to heave .... and then fill a bag full of leaves.. and some time after the soil freezes ... place the bag over the plant... the key to overwintering is.. GET THEM DORMANT.. KEEP THEM DORMANT ....

be very careful about how all these warmer zone peeps do it ... it is interesting to read about how they do it.. but it is not all that relevant to your zone..

when i moved.. i moved about 1300 hosta in pots... in jan.. and lost about 100 of them.. pshaw on pots in winter ... a vast majority made it through winter.. and then sprouted too early in spring ... and then got repeatedly frosted and freezed... and failed at that point in time ... to rot associated with damp ... and cold

again .... i am sure it can be done.. and all i am trying to do.. is list variables for you .... NOT discourage you from trying ...

arent you the one .. removing older non descript hosta to make room for the newer and better ... pot them up.. experiment ...

but dont forget.. the driveway hosta.. will live thru winter on the driveway.. i wouldnt experiment with something like GE .. lol ...

good luck

ken
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thisismelissa
Original Author
14 years ago
Thank you Arcy & Ken...

I always appreciate your discussions on the variables and will take it all into consideration!

Ken, I am currently removing NoID hosta and giving them to friends. And HECK NO, my GE's are happy where they are, so they're not moving!
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
14 years ago
put a couple of your noids in pots.. and experiment with stuff you dont care if they live ...

put a couple pots on the north side of a building... in late october ... let snow cover them...

a couple .. pot and all in the ground ...

a couple in the garage or shed

and just throw a couple in the veggie garden with a bag of leaves...

then make decisions next year.. on how it all works in your garden

experiments will give you much more info ... than we can ...

ken
ptilda
14 years ago
Ken, wow! Thanks for the feedback. I've been thinking about options with overwintering in pots in colder zones. I love the photos that have been posted of hosta in half-barrels, but I'm affraid of them dying if overwintered that way.

Still not brave enough to try it, but I might think about it with one of my "throw-away" hostas like Undu. Albo.
hostared
14 years ago
We winter over 50 large pots in IL.
Some pots are 5 to 10 gallons. Mostly Lanscapers pots all heavy plastic. Last year we only lost 1.
The reason we do this is that we have a suburban lot and our large hosta needed to be elevated so I could garden underneath them. Very Successful practice. Also sometimes the large ones get lost and now they are on display. We also elevate them.

After trial and error our method is:
Leave all pots on deck till just before Christmas when we know they are frozen.
Place them all in the garage stacked on top of each other.
At the end of March (depending on weather) we unstack them.
When pips start coming up they begin to go outside.
One caution...good drainage in pots. You don't want spring rains/cold to rot plants.

The larger the pot the less this will happen.

Try a few as an experiment. This is the only way we can have very large hostas specimens.

It works for us...Westy can attest to my method.
aka_margo
14 years ago
One year I forgot about clay pot that I had outside, it happened to have the hosta 'Little Red Rooster' in it. Thought for sure 'Little Red Rooster' would be dead, but it came back just fine. It emerged a little later but that's it. Pot started to chip, so that didn't winter over as nicely. Since then I have moved the pots with hosta in them up against the house after frost and I cover them with piles of leaves.
Jen
lisasmall
14 years ago
Ken, thanks for the good lesson. I'm confused -- why a bag of leaves? What kind of bag? Why not just loose leaves?
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
14 years ago
plastic bag of leaves to be thrown away ..

insulation .... GET THEM DORMANT>> KEEP THEM DORMANT ....

avoids heave also ...

in your zone.. the bag will probably keep the soil frozen until august.. lol ...

loose leaves may or may not work.. depending on the tree ... e.g. maple leaves make a rotting impermeable mat ...

and bags dont blow away ...

ken
loisflan
14 years ago
I have a wooden planter, about 3' by 8". No bottom (it sits on the ground) and the fourth side is a retaining wall. After everything was frozen hard, maybe December, I surrounded the planter with the 2" insulation that is used in home construction and put a lid on it of the same insulation. Way into spring, when I was sure there would be no hard freezes (what a laugh; this is Minnesota) and the other in-gound hosta were starting to appear, I unwrapped the planter. No sign of hosta and I worried that the dirt was too moist, but very soon, all four of my new minis came popping up through the soil. Blue Mouse Ears, Lakeside Baby Face, Just So and Dragon Tails have had a great summer. It was a very successful experiment. I hope next year is a repeat performance.
Carole Westgaard
14 years ago
Yup...I sure can vouch for Hostared's pot method. Her garden is gorgeous with the elevated pots...you can't see the pot because the hostas and other plants below cover them. If I had level land I would do this too...but I don't know about stacking 50 planted pots in our garage....there isn't even enough room for the garbage!

Gloria - post some pics!

Westy
idiothe
14 years ago
We keep a few in large pots... terra cotta style, cheap Mexican stuff. Most years we lose 0-25% of the hostas and about 10% of the pots. This year we lost 0, but a long cold spring resulted in some showing frost damage and poor form.

Our technique - pick cheap nice looking hostas... plop them into a pot with drainage. Enjoy them in summer. Forget about them in fall. After the ground freezes, tip them on their sides to avoid collecting too much moisture and rotting the crowns when the soil partially thaws and refreezes in the spring. If possible toss a bag of leaves or loose leaves over them and try to remember to remove it in spring and set them back upright after last hard freeze.

We also have raised beds full of minis... also toss bags of leaves or loose leaves over them... very good luck so far.

I tried burying plants for my spring sale in their gallon pots in the ground for over wintering... had much less success than lining them out in the "farm" area of the garden and digging them in spring.
greenthumbz4mn
14 years ago
Concerning bagged leaves. In the fall I bag about 2 dozen bags of leaves. I use them in the bag for protecting plants during the winter (last winter I know I saved 3 young trees by putting bags all around the roots). Then I dump out the leaves during the summer on my paths and for mulching. I have 3 precious bags left right now which I'll use on my paths before next week's garden party. Mary

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