I think that Brandon means hEEling. You will be fine. If you did not buy them, they would sit in the pots at the nursery. Put them in shade, water them, and plant them in mid-Septmber, which is in 2 weeks.

What do you mean by heeling?

Heeling in = dig a hole, put in all the plants (still in their pots is OK), fill in hole- the soil give them insulation from the temperature fluctuations that container plants experience. If you lay them at an angle the insulation effect is even greater.

Seeing as you are only waiting for cooler fall temperatures I'd just stick them in the coolest shade you have and water them daily.

black pots get hot in sun .. so full bright shade is best ..

forget about heeling in.. unless you can not plant before winter.. then we will talk about it ...

mid sept is fine ... if not thru about all of october .. plenty of time ...

trees do not need a lot of water ... water when they need water.. insert finger ...

a good drenching a day or so before would be cool ...

cant recall your native soil .. ken

potted stock can be planted anytime with proper watering.

Well not really - if you are talking woody plants and they are root bound and you need to really tease (rip!) the roots apart, doing it when the plant is not dormant is just asking for trouble. I've done it, and sometimes succeeded, but have pretty much learned to wait for fall.

Thanks guys! I will be buying some plants tomorrow and put them in shade until mid september and plant them. I was just worried because I hear all the fuss some people say about having to plant potted nursery plants right away and such

nonsense ... a common definition of a hardcore gardener .. a green thumb .. is that you are NOT one.. until october rolls around.. and you realize you still have a hundred pots to plant before winter. . lol ..

its not really rare at all ... just remeber.. just because you buy it.. does NOT mean its the proper planting season ....

just keep having fun ... and saving a few bucks is always fun ...

ken

Whole garden center is half off. Bought 4 'Purple Diamond' loropetalums for $3 each and garden soil (I think it's earth grow brand) for $1 per bag.

Hey guys I've got another question about keeping plants in a pot for a long time. So I want to buy this azalea and raise it in a pot for about 10 years before planting in the ground when I switch homes. Will that be a bad idea? I'm worried because after the plant has been in a pot for such a long time and then suddenly being removed from the pot and being planted in the ground, that will cause a lot of stress. If its been in a pot for like 2-3 years it might not make a difference but if its like 10 years, I'm wondering how well a plant will fare with it.

Is it a common azalea? If so you could just buy a medium sized, maybe 3-gallon one when you switch homes. If you could find a really small specimen it may work, although this depends somewhat on cultivar. I'm guessing you mean rhododendron japonica, or a hybrid of.

I don't think so. Its a girards hot shot azalea and I've only seen them in sale in lowes and they are tiiiiny. So I want to start raising it now so it'll be big by the time I would plant it in the ground. Plus they are slow growing so I want a head start. And I have a lot of leftover 5-1-1 mix that I didn't get to use so I want to get rid of that too.

I planted a "slow growing" 'conversation piece' azalea last year next to a gardenia. It grew so fast that it almost grew up and over the gardenia, so I moved it to a new spot this winter where it could grow. It was a 1 gallon specimen when planted. How big of a pot? I usually buy plants that are at least in 1 gallon pots, but you could raise the azalea in a container until it gets a little bigger. I guess it is worth a try. What have you got to lose? (besides a few dollars)

Well thats my question. If I raise it in a pot for 10 years and suddenly plant it in the ground after being in a pot for such a long time, will it cause a lot of stress? Or does it not matter?

I don't see transferring from container to ground being a problem. It may go into transplant shock with a little die-back on the branch tips at most, but will recover from that. Nurseries keep plants potted for years, and being a home grower with somewhat limited space raise plants in containers (usually for less than 2 years). You just have to be willing to do the maintenance. Pruning to control size, potting up, root pruning, etc.

Actually.. I might as well just buy and plant it in the future. I went to back to lowes today again where they had it a month ago and now its all gone. Now I can't find it anywhere sigh

I bought some flowers from a nursery but I will not be planting them for another two weeks are they going to survive in their original pots?

yes ... we are talking years.. not weeks ... after all .. this is the tree forum ... and thats tree time ... lol ...

ken

Brenda,

Flowers are not the same as woody plants when it comes to root bound. Many times, the wife brings home flowering plants that have a circle of thick roots protruding out the bottom of the pot, I just cut them off and plant in a larger pot, no issues. You wouldn't want to do that with woody plants.

I agree this is the tree forum. lol! :-)

thank you for the info. sorry tree people didn‘t mean to step on any tree roots. lol😜