Potting & Repotting Plants
Yesterday morning I watered the patio plants and went in search of a big pot for the hibiscus.
Once I got in the car, I figured I’d just go to Home Depot and get the same big green pots I’d purchased in the spring. The biggest ones for the price that I knew of.
I was gone maybe an hour, hour and a half. When I got back, the hibiscus looked near dead. I couldn’t believe it. I’d just watered it!
So I quickly moved it into the shade. In the late afternoon, I went out to repot it. It was looking a lot better by then.
I doubt it will get moved again, as it’s got to be super heavy now. I put the empty pot up on the overturned galvanized tubs and planted the hibiscus right there.
I sure hope this helps the plant from getting too stressed. I’ll be watching from where I sit on the couch to see how it does in a few hours.
While out I saw cone flowers and lo and behold, there was a red one. I must be out of my mind to take on planting in the heat of July. I grabbed the red one and a white cone flower, which I’ve always loved.
My cone flowers have not come back after winter. So I got the same big green pot I got for the hibiscus and thought maybe if I kept a lot of pots around it, and it’s against the fence, the cone flowers might survive the winter.
It will be a test. My black-eyed Susans didn’t come back after last winter, and they were in the big galvanized garden with the cone flower.
All I have in this big green pot are the two cone flower plants. When you’re container gardening, it’s all trial and error in certain climates.
I’ll get better photos when they’re in the shade. The red one is more compact and just had one flower blooming.
Of course then I had to get potting soil. Those pots take a lot. So I headed way to the back and got soil.
Once I’d gotten all that loaded in my cart and went to the outdoor check out, I was about done in. I felt faint in the heat.
I stopped on the way home and got a root beer. I didn’t want anything with caffeine, as it further dehydrates you. I’d already had my iced coffee earlier at home.
I came in and went out to the patio to the gate, unlocked the lock I have on it, then drove the car around to the alley to unload the soil.
My word was I tired after that.
Then after moving around pots later in the day and potting and repotting, I figured I had gotten more than adequate exercise for the day.
Today I will rest up.
I bought another hibiscus for my yard today. Reading about your hibiscus inspired me. Mine will be planted in the ground. Even the hibiscus plants at the plant nursery were wilting today in their containers, and they do a good job watering their flowers and plants. My new hibiscus is a deep pinkish red with huge flowers. I thought I was going to get a pale pink one, but they seemed to be wilting more than the other colors.
I hope you can find a place on your patio where your beautiful hibiscus will do well.
I bet your new cone flowers are pretty. My blackeyed Susans reseeded themselves from last year. They even seeded themselves directly into a flower pot that was next to them. It’s a good thing they did, because those self seeded blackeyed Susans and a beautiful potted petunia that my friend gave me while I was in the hospital getting knee replacement surgery are the only potted flowers I have in my yard right now. I haven’t been able to do any yard/flower stuff yet this season while my knee has been healing.
I wish my black-eyed Susans had come back. There was a big clump of them in one of the big galvanized tubs. I thought for sure they’d reseed and come back.
What every you are doing Brenda..all I can say..IS GOOD JOB!!!!!
Thanks! But I’m going to have a hard time keeping plants alive with that much sun. Those two trees they cut down were at the other end, but really made a difference I guess.
Brenda, I’m feeling exhausted just reading about your busy day! Those bags of soil are heavy, heavy, heavy. The red coneflower is so pretty. I don’t think I have seen red ones before. Maybe in one of my plant catalogs. I would love to see your patio “in person” just to see how the different groupings of plants are situated in relationship to each other. You have such a good eye for arranging them. A video showing it from end to end would be good–hint, hint!
Hope you got some rest today so you’re ready for Andrew’s visit!
Give Charlie a little pat for me and have a nice rest-of-the-weekend.
I’ve never done a video, so I wouldn’t know where to start. I don’t have a smart phone. I’ll try to remember to take photos that will help with that.
Be sure to drink plenty of water in that heat. My pots are holding up, but losing flowering ability. Here in NE Texas, I usually just have green showing by August. I stuck a lot of small flags in the pots to add a little color for the 4th and I’ll leave them in until after Labor Day. I’ll be watching to see how your Hibiscus goes.
Heavens, I spent $25 for the hibiscus, so it had better live. I never spend that much on a plant.
I do hope your hibiscus rallies and does well, but Home Depot does guarantee (with your receipt) perennials, trees and shrubs for one year.
Crystal & Dixie
I love your plants and I’m glad you got the hibiscus repotted. It has been so hot here but today we have some rain. Hope it cools off and doesn’t just make it a sauna!
Lawsy, I hate the humidity. I’d love some rain though.
The heat can really zap your energy. I do hope your beautiful hibiscus does well in it’s larger pot. We grow ours in the ground year round here in Florida. I favor yellow…we moved ours from the too shady spot in the back yard to a sunnier spot in the front yard. Your cone flowers look so pretty, I can see why they came home with you!
Crystal & Dixie
The last hibiscus I had, back when I lived in TX, was yellow.
Something I have always done when I have large heavy pots. I fill them half full of packing peanuts or Styrofoam pieces, then the soil goes on top. It is much easier to move these pots about and I don’t use as much potting soil either.
Hope you are having a restful weekend Brenda.
I usually do that too, but I didn’t have any. So I got a lighter grade of soil to fill the pot up to about halfway.
I had a potted hibiscus outside. It was in beautiful bloom when deer ate much of the plant. ??♀️ I suppose everybody needs to eat. I brought it inside for the winter and hoped it would grow and it did until my cats got after it. We had cats at the time and they loved to shred houseplants and flowers. Nothing was safe from them! For many years I wasn’t able to have houseplants but now I’m collecting them again. The heat is exhausting, isn’t it? It’s nice to get outside early in the morning to putter with plants. Home Depot has nice pots. I like your green color.
Eventually I’ll get a cat. And I’ve wondered if that will work with house plants. My last two cats never bothered the plants.
You can take Charlie to Home Depot, they don’t mind, and I bet your other nursery wouldn’t mind as well. I wish I had your green thumb, I’m trying not to kill my jade and prayer plants that I bought after seeing yours in your apartment. Sigh…
Carol and Molly
My jade and prayer plant are outside on the red table under the tree. Suddenly the prayer plant started losing a lot of leaves, so I hoped I could revive it outdoors. I had the jade plant outside last summer too.
I know that you were super tired after your shopping excursion and the potting/repotting, BUT I’ll bet it was a good tired because you accomplished so much. Your flowers look just beautiful. It is quite hot here as well and we had so little rain this past week and not much in the forecast for the next week. I have to check on my plants several times during the day and make note of which plants seem to hang in there in this heat and which ones just give up.
Have a restful day.
Last summer I had those two trees at the other end that provided shade. This year it’s a testing period without them here.
Be careful in the heat!
I hope your hibiscus makes it. For years we had a beautiful plant that grew into a huge tree full of red blooms year round and then one year it simply stopped blooming and looked sickly. We cut it back and it bloomed a little and then sadly it was gone. We didn’t really have space for a tree there so we have not replaced it.
I know. I must have half lost my mind to start all this in July!
Please do rest up and enjoy the view from indoors today! That was a lot of work to do in the heat.
I too have a white cone flower that I got last year and I just love it. I hope the hibiscus perks up today!
Looking at the hibiscus right now from the couch, it is almost in full shade by noon. I moved it to the left as far as I could when I planted yesterday.
Good luck with the hibiscus. It is so beautiful in your photos. Here I am able to grow mine in the ground, three large shrubs that grow at least a couple of feet each season so I trim them back to be about the same height at my privacy fence, once the blooming season is done. They bloom late, usually not until September, but I have 3 varieties in 3 different colors and they add a ton of color during the time of year in SE Wisconsin when perennials are pretty much done flowering. (I haven’t put any annuals in my beds for 2 years, I stick to perennials now). They are messy plants, though. The seed pods release thousands of seeds every year, I could open my own hibiscus factory if I wanted to! I leave the pods on, though, because the squirrels will eat them during the winter. It is so much fun to watch them climb the fence and then jump on the shrubs, swaying on the branches as they munch away on the dried up seed pods! They will eat them all the way through the end of March into April some years, depending on how cold it is during our “spring.” It makes such a difference being able to plant in the ground and not be restricted to pots. The roots are able to go deep and survive our harsh winters. Those deep roots also enable my hibiscus to tap into water underground. Except for a few hours in the morning and about an hour before sunset, they are in full sun all day. And they don’t wilt at all (unlike my hydrangea, which I watch like a hawk and sometimes run out to water 2x a day). It must be so distressing seeing your hibiscus suffer in the heat! But your patio is soooo beautiful, you have created a gorgeous oasis of color and beauty for yourself and the local wildlife, a peaceful and serene retreat from the world. My yard is my sanctuary, too. Even in the winter, my working areas inside are pointed outward to the outdoors where I can see the squirrels and the birds all year around, the trees, the green lushness during the summer, and the stark beauty of the winter with incredible sunrise and sunset colors painted across the skies. Ahhhhhh.
I’ve never had any luck with hydrangea. Even when I lived where I could put it in the ground. I do like to watch the critters getting natural food in winter as you do.
I am no gardener. my green thumb is a black thumb! but a strange thought just came to me!
what if the galvanized tub under the pot gets so hot that it’s like a stove top? the hibiscus should be able to handle a fair amount of sun but the pot sitting on a hot stove would be a different thing!
and given the heat we’re having it might not even have to be in direct sunlight to become so hot.
but you’re the expert. you have the greenest thumb around! so just ignore it if you think this idea is stupid of me! because I truly don’t know!
I did think of that. So originally I had it elevated off the tub. But it still may be affecting it.
Brenda,
It sounds like a long, hot busy day. Be careful in the heat, it takes a lot out of you. I hope that you had them load the car for you at Home Depot! They are more than happy to help and you can take Charlie in there as well.
I had hibicus plants for years and they were hard for me to keep alive in containers. I finally gave up.
I hope that you have a relaxing and leisurely day.
Yes, the guy at Home Depot loaded the soil for me. I may have to give up on container hibiscus too. I’m keeping a close eye on it, but it looks pretty droopy and I’ve watered several times before noon.