A tip for container annuals you want to save next fall.

14 years ago

If you are planting annuals that are really tender perennials in mixed container gardens, such as begonias, fuchsias, impatiens, cuphea, spikes, aspargus ferns, etc., and you want to save them over in the fall, use this simple tip to make them MUCH easier to take up in the fall to bring indoors, and with less shock on them.

Simply pot them up into a one gallon sized nursery planter, the kind with large drainage holes in the bottom (often left over from buying perennials or small shrubs, or you can often get them really cheap, used, at garden centers or even free). Plant them so that there is less than half an inch of rim sticking above the soil.

Then, bury the entire pot in your planter, with the rim level or just slightly below the soil line, and cover that half inch gap with soil.

Be sure to water the individual small pots for a few weeks, until the roots of the plant grow through into the bulk soil beyond.

In the fall, you simply excavate pot and all. Some pruning of roots that grow through the drainage holes may be necessary. For most things, you also will need to cut back the top to compensate for the loss of roots, and it would also be a good time to treat for insects.

I've used this method for several years, and it works great. The plants aren't restricted in growth, and makes it much easier in the fall with less stress on the plants.

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Comments (4)

Agnes3059
14 years ago
This is great! I recently planted some impatience in flat long Tupperware containers that I drilled holes in. I'm not sure if the container will be big enough for the roots to last all summer so this will solve that problem! AND I didn't realize I could just bring them in in the winter and they would survive. I was going to toss them...yikes!

Once I bring them in do I have to water them? Should I wait until they become dormant and the cold dies them back?
denninmi
Original Author
14 years ago
Yes, you still have to provide the right indoor environment, which varies from species to species. Impatiens need it to be reasonably bright, somewhat moist, and warm, at least 65 degrees. They will be killed by frost, so you need to bring them in before that.
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Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
14 years ago
I get very good results with Coleus and Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus) by keeping cuttings in water for winter. Bright windowsill. Wax Begonias bloomed all winter in a south window.

Those "spikes" they sell as accent plants are often Dracaena marginata, a common houseplant easy to grow into a little tree.

I like being able to buy something different next year!
denninmi
Original Author
14 years ago
I like trying different things, too, but I have some old standbys like Dragonwing begonias that are worth holding over.

I got kind of sick of spikes a few years ago, I've been using various grasses and grass like plants for the same effect. I actually have been using grains like barley and oats to good effect, and it's SO cheap, a tiny handful per pot costs nothing.