Elon is adorable, Ben.

I have seen proliferation on my Abraham Darby this year and it is beautiful!

Ben, please accept my belated congratulations on your and your garden’s survival through the horrific TX winter! My sister and a number of friends live in Dallas, so I heard first hand about extended power loss, burst pipes, etc. Your garden is a true Phoenix and a gorgeous reminder that nature can be wonderful when treated with care. Lovely, lovely photos! Carol

P.S. Elon is cuteness embodied!

Carol - wow!! You're so right...that must have been terrible.

@BenT (NorCal 9B Sunset 14) I am speechless by your garden. You win.

@Diane Brakefield to confirm that I've heard you correctly: it is OKAY to have a pot ghetto and still be a legit gardener? Because that would sure open up (or close off depending on how you view it haha) so many more possibilities! :)

Robert, of course, it's fine to have a pot ghetto, and you will certainly be a legit gardener. I've never opposed pot ghettos, and, in fact, I have one on our small patio, but it's not pots of roses. It's many hot peppers, a whiskey barrel (so classy) full of basil grown easily from seed, A big pot of nasturtiums, a pot of chives, a pot of lemon grass, a big container of mixed flower plantings, a bowl of succulents, a big pot of cucumbers, a bowl of dwarf yellow cosmos, and??? Pots of pot,,,nonono. I forget. Some things I grow every year, and some change from year to year. Pot on. Diane

@PDXRobertZ8

I think a pot ghetto is a rite of passage for a rose fanatic. Inevitably, the garden reaches a point where there’s no more ground for additional roses, yet the gardener finds new varieties that are irresistible. Might as well enjoy and have pride in something that ’must be’! This was my pot ghetto expanding in front of one of my rose beds.

Diane

I love everything about your nasturtiums, the beautiful lush foliage and the hidden jewel blooms, the overall health. One of my mom’s garden club members grows them well, so I’m eager to try them here. They are a disaster in Texas, too much heat and humidity. When I worked in Boston, I visited the Isabel Stewart Gardner Museium, it has this glorious indoor garden atrium where they grow 20 ft long nasturtiums!

How do you harvest lemongrass? It grew into this tight individsible clump for me. I’m thinking I will continue to let my asian grocer grow it for me.

@BenT (NorCal 9B Sunset 14) your pot ghetto is stunning! Why am I not surprised?

I was being a bit coy with my comment above. I definitely have one myself--mostly roses I started from cuttings, boxwoods I've started from cuttings, etc. But I also have quite a few roses that I just don't know where to plant yet, and so they are there too. The perfectionist in me wants everything planted in the ground of course, but I just can't do that if I am not absolutely convinced I've got the right location. Incidentally, we recently removed a small tree (a weed, really) and so my pot ghetto will likely look much more glorious with all the sun it will have this coming season!

Ben, your so called pot ghetto is glorious, and you are giving me ideas. If I tried putting big pots in front of a rose bed like you do so well, my lawn mower guy, aka, son in law, would throw a fit. I'd never hear the end of it, so I'll try to resist. I've wanted to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum for many years (it's her mansion, and the art collection was hers). I found out what the nasturtiums are called, and got the seed which is available from a few sellers. It's called Tall Single. And I use it every year in that pot. Last year, to please demanding son in law (ha), I grew lemon grass for the first time in the ground. It grew huge, and I was pleased, but SIL forgot to harvest it. Now I am not pleased. Now that you have reminded me, I will confront him about that. We get it from the Asian grocers, too. You harvest the part in the ground and just above the ground, I believe. Not the top grass, of course. If you ever visit Linfield College in McMinville, OR, check out their beautiful hanging baskets all over campus. They featured beautiful hanging nasturtiums the year we viewed them. It's very close to wine country, too.

Robert, I've grown to hate certain trees, which I've spent a fortune on having them trimmed and pruned, but still they shade out my roses and infuriate me. Worse, in back is a tree that suckers beyond belief, and I think this might be it's last year. Trees planted correctly and not doing harm, are wonderful living things and do much good--in the wrong spot without adequate space, they can become awful pests. Diane

Haha this is a funny thread. I think we should all have flower code names in case we get arrested and end up in the Flower Slammer.

@Diane Brakefield agreed! We have removed an alainthus (humorously called "Tree of Heaven"), an asian pear (brittle and a mess maker), an arborvitae (needs no reason), and a clerodendron--just as messy as the alainthus really. What we have now will be beautiful when they mature.

Hanging baskets... I used to work at a nursery in Tualatin, and we planted up gigantic hanging baskets for several cities (I am not sure if they were for Linfield or not...). It was an amazing feat, and the baskets are stunning each summer hanging from street light posts. I plant up a few for my place of work now. But that's it. Pics below of recent summer baskets at work:

What type of pot/basket are those plants growing out of? They're lovely. DH finally bought a pergola like he's been wanting for the past 5 years and while he plans to hang out under it, I plan to populate that space with increasing numbers of potted plants lol. The deck is south/west facing and is absolutely scorching in the summer, every plant I've tried to grow on there has burned to death. I'm hoping the dappled shade from the pergola will allow me to finally grow things on there 🤞

@Mischievous Magpie (CO 5b) If memory serves me correctly, they are the #10 Anderson pot. I keep reusing them so I haven't bought them in awhile. And they are PACKED with plants. Something like 20 plants in each.

Ben - I had no idea that nasturtiums could grow like that!! Unimaginable!! I've always loved your pot ghetto. :) :)

Robert - holy cow!! I couldn't even dream up pots that beautiful! You're an artist!

Sultry - flower slammer. :) :)

awww thank you @rosecanadian they are a lot of fun to make, and they look different every year!

My name would be

Kris. Pot Dud

I can't get a decent basket to grow to save my life so hats off to you growers who create such extraordinary beauty in a basket .

My geraniums lately have been a huge disappointment. But I not giving up.

@Kristine LeGault 8a pnw I bet I could predict why your baskets don't work. I learned a few things from my time at the nursery. But more on that later. :)

Robert, your hanging baskets are just splendid. Do you have problems in your wetter climate watering them? I gave up on hanging flowers because of the tremendous amount of watering we have to do here (and the wind, too). Do you still do any work for nurseries? Edwards in Boise would love you. Diane

2022 patio basket for July 4

Pelargoniums (US name for geraniums) in July basket--they do very well here and love our sun. Pepper plant next to the flowers. It was hotter than !@#$ when these photos were taken.

Hi @Diane Brakefield thank you! I don't work in any nurseries currently, but I do plant up baskets every year for friends or for where I work. No problems with watering here in Portland because we get so much of it until July. Then I only water about 3x/week during July/August because these containers are so big and so packed, there isn't much evaporation--most water leaving is through the plants' transpiration. So that does help. In Boise, the dry winds would certainly make it more challenging. An automatic drip system helps (folks use them here for their hanging baskets as well), but it can be frustrating to set up.

Your baskets are beautiful! I don't know what you normally do, but each year I have four or five "annual containers" that get planted up with whatever takes my fancy for the year. I've been so obsessed with roses the past couple of years that I've barely planted these up! Haha. But now that the initial obsession has subsided somewhat, I really see the value of having a variety of plants in the garden--not just roses.

@Diane Brakefield here are a few more.

I wanted to experiment with grasses in hanging baskets one year. Everyone thought I was nuts. It turned out to be a strange basket, to be sure, but not a wasted experience for me.

As a baby:

A few months later:

And I did several holiday baskets over the years. They were a lot of fun and evergreen here in Portland.

This is a container that is surrounded by lots of other plants, but I like to experiment with things I don't see in the garden centers, and so this combo was amaranth, sweet potato vine, and pelargonium (with coleus and plectranthus behind it). I loved this look!

This container was almost a success. I loved the color combos, but the top plantings never panned out so the whole thing was a bit of a letdown. But against our charcoal grey walls, it was certainly vibrant.

And I usually do winter hanging baskets for work. They are chock full of spring flowering bulbs that bloom months after I hang them in October, and it's a nice surprise. I couldn't find photos of them with the bulbs in bloom, unfortunately.

Oh, my, you have put my feeble efforts to shame, Robert. I love every one of your baskets, but the holiday evergreens really struck my fancy, though I'd love to see the office pots in full bloom with their bulbs. Just incredible, and it looks like your Portland climate is conducive to growing hanging baskets for sure. We do have a massive drip system, with emitters for roses, shrubs, etc. But it's made more complicated by countless small sprinklers plugged into the drip system, so I can grow lots of perennials and annuals without standing all day with a hose sprayer in hand. Too hot for that, not to mention wasteful of water, and the plants grow better with the tiny sprinklers. It's ugly at first until the plants get going, and then the system mostly disappears. Diane

I'm putting in a drip system in both front and back this summer as well. I love to water--I just don't have the time, and hose watering is not efficient as a drip system is. I'm really looking forward to it as I have always spent most of my free time watering--instead of enjoying the garden.

No way, I've never seen a grass hanging basket and I am in love! That's fantastic. I wish I could touch it.

Robert, I meant to mention how I like the beautiful pot with the amaranth. It fits in so beautifully with the all green plantings around it. Is there an obelisk in there to support the amaranth? I grew that once in the ground and it really was Love Lies Bleeding, flat. The beautiful container is the way to go. I think this is my favorite of all your gorgeous baskets and pots. Diane

Robert

Those baskets are all so different and each is wonderful in its own way. The grass basket looks so soft like it wants to be touched. The amaranth basket is dramatic, and the baskets with the long draping plants (ivy?) are really over the top. I really enjoy them all.

Diane,

I put drip irrigation for my pots too, my weather is so hot that those pots dry out really fast, I’d probably have to hose water pots twice a day. It is a pain to manage all those emitters , they are certainly not maintenance free, but it is better than having to manually water.

Sultry

In jail, you’d be known as the goat grifter .

Magpie

I look forward to pics of your pergola project!

Thanks @Diane Brakefield! That pot was a hit that summer for sure. No obelisk to support the amaranth, but I'm pretty sure I pinched it heavily to ensure one strong stem, and I may have put a skinny bamboo stake right next to it when it was planted. We have fierce winds in the front so I'm always dealing with flattened plants, unfortunately (we get the east winds from the Columbia Gorge raging through).

@BenT (NorCal 9B Sunset 14) I think the plants you are referring to are the sweet potato vines. And the silver one is dichondra.

By the way, I get a LOT of my plant pot inspiration from Detroit Garden Works. They have created some of the most sensational container designs I've ever seen. A quick Google search will show you how breathtaking they are.

BenT, I just saw this..goat-grifter haha I love it!

Robert, I too am in awe of your baskets! The first job I ever had was when I was 16 and worked part-time for a florist shop. All they would ever let me do was sit up in a hot attic with a fan and cut out foam to put in the bottom of ceramic dishes etc. for floral arrangements, help get flowers coming in off the trucks, and stuff envelopes! LoL

I really loved to watch the floral designers make stuff and put together arrangements. That was the best part!

@Diane Brakefield circling back to pot ghettos, this is (going to be I hope) my beautiful spring bulb pot ghetto. I love seeing these pots like this, knowing that they will be of blooms soon.

Oh my goodness, Robert. What perfect pots which will produce perfect plants. You have been busy. I don't think I could work that hard anymore. How is your weather? We are really far away from spring right now and our temps need to do some warming before I think about plants. I'm looking forward to seeing photos of all these bulbs blooming. It will be eye popping. You'll rival the Dutch-ha. And you are a perfectionist for sure. Diane

I remember that when I finished planting these up in the fall I said to myself, "never again." Haha! It's just so much work, bending and lifting, and all of that. Hopefully the squirrels won't eat them all up. I may be a perfectionist (wink).

It's been in the low 20s at night this week, but we warm up to mid 30s to lower 50s by tomorrow. All of my roses are budding out even though I haven't done their winter trim. I've been assured that this is fine. Even the International Rose Test Garden hasn't done their spring pruning. Hellebores are starting to push their blooms up now, and snowdrops are blooming with the witch hazel trees. But that is it. And we could still have several snow or ice events, and so I am not doing much outdoors yet. :)

Kudos, Robert on your bulb planting! I used to do a similar thing for many years... planted tons in pots, put them in the nether regions of my yard in sun, then when they started to bloom, I'd bring them onto the front porch in the shade. Spectacular! But, as Diane said, I can't pull it off any longer. BTW, keeping them in the shade when they are in bloom will prolong their bloom a LOT!

Robert,

If something looked as perfect as those pots and boxwood in my garden, an alien would have had to do the work! My garden is pretty much a mess everywhere all the time, and my eyes don’t really see mess, they just see plants that need to be tended to. I’m looking forward to seeing all those spring bulbs!

Diane

I just pruned all my roses last week, here we can prune antime after mid December. I hope to finish finish spreading compost this week. How much compost do you put around your roses? I’m thinking 2 inches around the drip line. Then I’ll need to add some mulch on top of that. All while trying not to step on companion plants, which are in a real danger as I’m quite clumsy!

Oh, and I started this little project of rooting cuttings, about 25 different varieties. So far so good, I’m seeing roots at the sides of the clear pots. I like to use clear cups to give myself encouragement!

Ben, those look great! How long have they been growing to show those roots? What kind of soil did you use and did you put them inside a clear box for humidity or just leave them out?

@BenT (NorCal 9B Sunset 14) well don't forget--I have a very small garden. What you see in that pic is 1/3 of the whole thing. If there was much more, there's no way I'd be doing all of that!

Your cuttings look terrific! I love taking cuttings. It feels so magical to me when they root and grow on. Good luck on those!

Ben, what wonderful new roses you are going to have from those cuttings. Do you have a lot of space for these plants--because I have a feeling you are going to be very successful at this, and will have at least 25 new roses just from cuttings. Can you tell us what some of them are? As far as compost, I put this on from November until I'm finished, which was a few weeks ago. It depends on weather, so now I'm ready to move on to Holly Tone. I put the goodies on all my favorite plants like peonies, hardy geraniums, hibiscus, clematis, etc. No goodies for you, Jupiter's Beard, says the compost nazi. Anyway, I think I put about the same amount on as you do, though I don't go out to the drip line on the really big roses, as you can imagine. I'd go bankrupt. That compost is expensive. Speaking of expensive, the cost of black oil sunflower seed and thistle seed for birdies has doubled in the last few months. I'd say that's price gouging. Diane

My post above, which I can see, didn't show up. Do I have to post it again. I answered your question about compost. Sigh. Diane

Diane,

Could you please, please try again to defeat the Houzz Hooligans and give a brief synopsis of your compost answer? It’d be the highlight of my day. Maybe you could copy and paste if the answer is still visible to you?

Robert,

Your garden reminds of Japanese gardens where everything is so well place. Except that it’s not Japanese in style, of course.

Judith

I mix my own , this time I used roughly 50% peat moss, 20 % perlite, 30% sand. I put them in a clear covered storage tote, under lights. I see roots in about 6 weeks. The one plant Spirit of Freedom on the right is over 2 months old and has extensive rooting.

Sorry for the delayed answer, in my head I answered your question yesterday but forgot to write it here!

Thanks for the information on the soil mix that you use for propagation. What sand do you use? I really want to give it a try.

Thanks Ben! I havent had great luck in the past - would like to try your method. Do you leave your lights on all the time?

Kristine

I buy my sand in bulk, but I think any coarse, washed and screened sand will do.

Judith,

I use a simple timer and give them about 12 hours of light.

Thanks Ben

Last year I planted a Paul Barden garden from Rogue Valley bands here in Austin. I have Allegra, Diablo Hawk, Marianne and I added Common Moss and Henri Martin. I hope they do well and bloom this year.

Marianne has grown so nicely in my garden. Last year it was one year old and bloomed nicely. I'm really looking forward to it this year as it's getting huge. I hope you like yours!

This will be it's third spring in my garden.

alsoalso

I'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'mI'm also looking forward to seeing Ellen Tofflemire next spring. It was a baby last year so I haven't seen it bloom yet.

Keep us posted on your Garden with Paul Barden roses, Bob!

Those are some very nice Barden roses you were able to acquire, Bob and Librarian. I believe I only have one, a tiny button-centered rose called Treasure Trail

Treasure Trail is so gorgeous, Ben!

I am adding 6 inches to top off my raised beds with Geo Growers Ranch Rose soil and alphalpa pellets Geo also makes their own Texas Tea

What a special looking house with beautiful stone beds. I went to college in Austin and like how each house in the neighborhood is unique. i bet you’ll make many friends once those beds are in bloom.