Boy did you yank MY chain! I've been feeling guilty because I have not yet planted:
-a Rozanne that I paid almost $20 for and she's been in the same pot since June
-two blue veronicas that bloomed in their pots on the porch and now are partly covered in blackened leaves (ugh)
-A rose named "Marina" with lovely coral flowers
-a dianthus "Cheddar Pinks"
-a lupine that I think has kicked the bucket in it's pot
-the verbena bonariensis that Digging The Dirt so generously gifted me

I'll do this weekend! I swear.....

The adorable little weenie hosta that I received at the swap! But I potted it up well and it's been pretty happy against the foundation on the north side of the house. I have been struggling to get the site I have in mind for it cleaned out! (who gave me that? you took Pulmonaria from me, I think. I meant to write it down an promptly forgot)... my "concept" is to use it as "edging" in front of a stacked stone wall that faces the house and is actually a retaining wall. I think its diminutive size will be perfect. I won't beg for more until I have the site fully prepped OK?

Other things were planted the week before last and last week.

Nice to know I share such august company. :)

At some point in June I was down to only 3-4 pots waiting to be planted, but now...OMG...25+ pots of various cuttings, rootings, impulse purchases, planned purchases, construction sites rescue efforts, etc hanging around and I'm anxiously waiting for fall swap to reduce that number little bid...and bring something else from the swap. LOL.
Is it never ending story?

Pshaw! You guys are rookies, lol!

I've got at least 80 pots that not only are still waiting to go into the ground, but have been waiting since last year! LAST spring I swore they would be in the ground by fall, but they were only joined by more, and they all spent the winter together in my garage. Then I said, okay, definitely this spring. Well, they didn't make it - again! - but I was good and didn't really buy any new plants this spring, only about 7 roses (although I DID bring home more plants than intended from the local swap). So here is fall creeping up on us, and some evil voice in my head convinced me to place a huge order with Bluestone last week. See that? I finally made two lasagna beds last week and here I think I can go wild and buy more plants!

But between the two lasagna beds already made, the one HUGE bed I started yesterday, and the now-empty-thanks-to-the-voles bed that I will attempt to replant (using a layer of oyster shells), hopefully I will get a good number of plants in the ground in the next month or so.

If not, back into the garage for another winter!

:)
Dee
who didn't include her 30 or so pots of annuals in her pot count

Here is a link that might be useful: about half of my pot ghetto this spring

Jeez, Dee! no wonder the rodents love your homestead. How about you just hang out a sign directing them to the choicest plants?

Only kidding; but I think you should worry less about hardware cloth and more about excavation, lol.

You've done my heart glad, kiddo. :) I haven't felt THIS on top of things in a really long time!

This is SO validating. I'm not the only one?????

(I ususally hang out at the cooking forums but what I really SHOULD be doing is gardening LOL!!!)

I will admit that I am so obsessive about plants, I can't let anything sit in the pot for more than 48 hours. Especially if I actually paid decent money for it, which is very, very rare. After the spring plant swap I had everything planted within a day I think. Actually I already have stuff potted up for the fall swap because I needed it out of the way, and it's freaking me out because I am afraid it's all going to die.

I also have a compulsive watering problem, and this morning I staked some weeds growing in my front garden...maybe I need therapy! they are nice weeds, really! LOL

Staking weeds!Hahaha. Some viburnums, a Brandywine crabapple, a nice japanese maple, a Sum and Substance hosta, many small trees from Arbor Day collected over the last 2 years, many lilacs awaiting a new bed, various plants from the spring swap. I have an Anabelle hydrangea that bloomed in it's pot.

My excuse is that it has been either raining or too hot all year. Hopefully this weekend will see a few in the ground.

I think Dee wins. *g*

Chelone-- I have two pulmonaria from the swap, Margery Fish and Mrs. Moon. Both of them are doing very well next to some lamb's ears (which are doing EXTREMELY well *g*).

George-- It never ends. I'm half dreading this fall swap. ;-D

It's not a ghetto, it's a "CONTAINER GARDEN"!! lol

Um, mine isn't stuff I buy but rather stuff I've wintersown and divided - I've got enough that I'm doing a benefit perennial sale next weekend.

YOU CAN DO THIS????? They don't die over the winter?
I obsessively get plants into the ground as soon as I get them because I thought they would die otherwise. I don't have a greenhouse or coldframe.
I got some daylilies (not potted -- in bags) and a mini rose at a rose society raffle about a month ago -- and since I then started Student Teaching I haven't had time to plant them. Can I still do it?

Let's see, I'll probably need to go out and do an inventory, but right off the top of my head: 3 hostas, 4 phlox paniculata, a few hardy geraniums, a 16 candle clethra (really ashamed about this one), and a partridge in a pear tree.....
But, I have been making headway and planted a mohawk viburnum (that I got at a spring swap) this week during the rain, some siberian irises, and a whole bunch of daylilies I got in trade and ordered. These weren't sitting around for more than a few hours, however.

GaelicGardener, you've got plenty of time to plant - at least several weeks. The rose you might want to get in the ground sooner, so it has time to settle in, but the daylilies should definitely be fine. They're tough. At the very least, get both the daylilies and the rose into pots - the bags might not be the best place for them to hang around. I overwinter all my pots in my attached, unheated garage. I've also left some pots outside, either inadvertently or because I just didn't get to them in time before the snow came, and for the most part, they've been fine too. I wouldn't purposely leave anything outside without some kind of protection in my garden, though. And it also depends on the plant - some things are hardier than others.

Another method is to plant the whole pot. I used to always think this was kind of dumb, figuring if I'm going to dig a hole to plant the pot, why not just plant the plant? But last year I got a rose late in the season, and since digging a hole for the plant meant digging a larger hole and having to amend it, plus not being exactly sure where I wanted the rose to go, I decided to just plant the pot. Worked great. The rose was fine come spring.

Good luck!
:)
Dee

GaelicGardener, I'm sorry to tell you, the mini rose is probably done for. So sorry. Too late. Here, just send it to me, I'll, uh, dispose of it for you... ;-D

(No, seriously, you're fine. Plant your plants. I just got 'Gourmet Popcorn' in the ground this morning. I think I heard it sigh in relief as I took off the pot...)

I was down to 1 lonely plant that I couldn't find a location for - a fuzzy kiwi volunteer. It's a really exotic-looking vine that, I understand, will get very big - that's why I couldn't find the right spot. It's been sitting in its pot since about April.

Now I'm potting up things for an upcoming plant swap, and I've got seedlings, divisions, and cuttings galore. It's a whole different feeling than having incoming plants waiting for a spot, though; plants getting ready to leave make me feel much better!

Probably that fuzzy kiwi will still be sitteing there after the rest leave for their new homes, then the pot ghetto will be a sad place again.

Ha. HA! I planted a whole bunch of CHAD plants this Labor Day weekend. I hardy have any plants languishing in the driveway waiting to go into the garden. Now there's only 3 leucothoe, a betony/stachys, some hens-and-chicks, a gold star(Chrysogonam) and a couple of other things sitting in the driveway. Ha!

Hey DTD:

I've seen a kiwi vine (is it the really gorgeous pink and chartreaus and white kind?) that was over twenty feet tall and half as wide. And it bore fruit! Here in Mass....

You've got plenty of space. Go for it.

Deb

Plenty of space? Ha ha! I wish! Nope, it's a "plain" green plant except that the fuzzies and the stems are red, and there's a sort of red cast to the leaves. This is an old picture, from before I potted the thing, it's about 3x this size now:

{{gwi:1090606}}

I left a really nice viburnum out last year, because I thought I killed it toward the end of the summer, it lost all it's leaves. I had missed watering it in a crucial 10 day period. I just left it there all winter and wow..was I happy in the spring. I was just about to throw it out when I noticed live buds on it. I popped it in the ground right away. I didn't care WHERE I put it, or if I had to move it. It leafed out and it has been fine all summer.

But I was so upset that I had bought it and killed it just by not getting it in the ground, that I did much better this year.

DtD..if you ever get to Lexington Gardens, they used to have the Victory Garden there..and they had a large wooden arbor with a trained hardy kiwi on it. Not sure if it is still there..it has been awhile.

Our pot ghetto is growing instead of shrinking! We've been making fall sale purchases...mostly shrubs. Being delivered this Friday: an Ilex 'Dragon Lady' (second one); winterberry 'Afterglow' & spouse; azalea; and a HUGE rusted iron, gated arbor that we negotiated down to half price which I'm very excited about. The arbor has five shelves about a foot deep on both sides of the gate & I'm having fun imagining what to put on the shelves. The arbor will be the entry into our rear garden area & next to an antique French garden cart. Unfortunately, this arbor weighs a ton (maybe, two?) and will need "planting" in cement. I phoned our handyman yesterday and pleaded for him to install it soon. It's way too heavy for hubby to handle on his own especially since his back is trashed from planting the first 'Dragon Lady'. haha

I have a few purple cone flowers I grew from seed. Many others were planted and are large but these are tiny. I need to get them in the ground soon. I also have some creeping jenny a friend gave me from her garden and a flat of pachysandra that I have under a tree and look at and water but for some reason dont do anything about. I am guilty of exactly the thing this post is about but I dont understand it. I have an enormous garden with lots of plants but there always comes a point when I stop planting and look at them and water.

Uh-oh, I just added to the pot ghetto. Now there are dwarf hostas and some too-good-to-pass-up end of season bargains sitting there. No sooner than I had the last batch planted when a new batch showed up. Dang. heehee

The two potted butterfly bush seedlings I nicked from client's garden finally bit the dust last weekend. That's ok because I had nowhere to put them anyways.

I have a plastic bag of daylily bonuses that are going strong. I don't know where to put them either. If they keep continuing to send up green shoots I suppose I must find a place for them.

Other than that, that is it. Whoops, I forgot about the 3 potted mums sitting on my steps that will replace the annuals in the tub by the door.

"...and look at and water but for some reason dont do anything about..."

Jackied, you are too funny! I'm guilty of the same thing at times. While I claim to have so many pots because I just don't have time to make beds and plant, and while this is for the most part true, many an hour here or there has been spent sitting on my patio looking at my pot ghetto, and thinking I should be planting, lol!

Well, thanks to Bluestone I now have at least 30 more plants out there. Many have spots waiting for them, but at least half don't, and will most likely be potted up to spend the winter in the garage to make friends with the others!

:)
Dee

Gata,
You are just now planting the viburnum? hehehe-I just planted the Annabelle that I think I got from you at the spring swap. I also just planted the other 4 viburnums that I had sitting round since last year. They are still in great shape, so I don't feel too guilty. I also planted a fairly big 'Brandywine' crabapple that had a bunch of the worst tasting apples I've ever bit into. I guess these aren't the kind you might be able to eat. YUK! I have about 3-4 plants left, not counting the 2 dozen that are sunk up to the rims in my nursery bed-these have been there for several years now. They are mostly small tree seedlings and lilacs from Arborday. They are probably ready to be planted by now.

Just out of curiosity...how many people who posted what was in their pot ghetto back in 2005, still have the same pots not in the ground yet? [g] What about now...more or less pots than back in 2005?

pm2

Nope, those all got planted. *G* I have a different pot ghetto now. (It's not too late to plant! I can still get the shovel through the soil so it can't be too late!)

I also have about 20 or so winter sown containers not in the ground yet and a few shrubs. Every year I have that problem. At least I am consistent. [g] I am determined though to one year have nothing left to plant after June. Anyone want to have a friendly wager for next year? :-)

On the morning of Saturday the 3rd of November, I got everything out of pots and into the ground!

Ooh, Greening, you are good, lol! Congratulations!

I had to laugh when I re-read this thread. I said I had 80 pots! Pshaw nothing! *I* was a rookie then too, lol! Last winter I dragged 243 pots into my garage. The year before it was 284, so I am getting better!

I have made some progress, and I've been really, really good about not buying new stuff. But yes, I do still have some of those same plants that were in pots in 2005 still in pots. What can I say? I procrastinate. Although some of these are supposed to still be in pots - they are for my patio.

I think I'm down to about 150 this year. I haven't counted yet - I do that when I bring them in. And I must add that many of these pots are little - 3 or 4 inches, so it's not quite as bad as it sounds.

I don't think I will ever not have anything in pots for the winter. Even if I don't count my patio plantings, I will still always have something. I just know it. I won't even attempt not to, lol.

:)
Dee

Great job greening! I am jealous. [g]
Actually, we were able to get a good portion of our pots in already and I only have about 7 pots left to go. I think I am going to get them in before the winter.

Dee...that is a LOT of pots you had last year! lol What would interest me would be where you came up with all these? [g] Do you do a lot of propagating or seed sowing?

:-)
pm2

PM2, I do a lot of winter-sowing, I go to local swaps, and I just buy things without having room for them, lol!

Our CT swaps are so great, and I always say I won't bring as much home as last time. To my credit, I have been much better the last two swaps. I think I brought home 7 plants in the fall of 2006 and only 2 plants this past spring. Thank goodness we didn't hold our fall 2007 swap, lol!

I was also really good about not placing a huge Bluestone order this past spring. That's usually what does me in. After all, you usually get 3 of each plant, so it adds up.

So, between my self-restraint and making a few new beds, I am whittling my pot ghetto down. I actually made quite a few new beds last year, but I've been using them primarily for my cutting gardens. I've got to make some for my perennials.

I'm interested in seeing what my count will be this year!

:)
Dee