My pots and bands are waiting patiently by the hole they will go into. As soon as it cools down a bit, they will get planted. I always plant bands directly in the ground. (Northland recommends it) rather than repotting into bigger pots as they grow.

What do you do with your David Austin pots? I throw them away, but always feel as though there must be a good use for such a nice nursery pot.

I usually plant my bands directly in the ground, but I have a few young roses in pots are sitting where I hope to plant them so I can see if they like the sun exposure there and so I can see if the blooms match neighbors in that bed. They are also partially buried to improve drainage and retain moisture.

I have some young, supposedly shade tolerant climbers in pots which I have placed in a sunny location in my morning sun bed so they can grow taller before they go in their shady permanent position.

I have two roses that are in very large pots permanently on my patio. Clotilde soupert and MAC which are doing OK considering the adverse conditions of their locations very little direct sun and intense heat from bricks.

My pot ghetto is of other plants that I am saving for other people and it is near the garbage can located in a less noticeable area.

I can't do it at all. I have no pots with roses. When I buy one it goes in the ground within a day or two. If I had an area that was more discreet perhaps I would have more pots hanging around. I have a patio, but I can't handle having a bunch of stuff all over it. I like it neat & tidy. Instead I plant and then a year or so later I end up moving them around if they get too big for the spot. Next spring I will have to do some serious garden reorganization. Pots would be helpful in this department. I also am in a colder zone where pots would have to overwinter indoors, which is way too much effort. If only I could have a beautiful greenhouse built to contain the pots. I've even limited the number of pots and planters I have for annuals because last year I had twice as many and I had to water sometimes twice a day. It also looked a bit too crowded, almost junky. Now I just have a few selective planters with annuals. If I were to have a pot ghetto, I would have to spend a fortune on buying all the same pots, just so it looked unified.

Flowers , I save mine for when I order bare roots . I like to get them started in pots then plant them out . I cringe when I see the stack I have, as they are costly and represents a couple hundred of dollars and a lot I don't have anymore! :(

tortoro and hallo , I almost always plant mine right away. This is new to me , at this house. My husband is patiently waiting to hear of a possible promotion and move again , they sure do toy with us back and forth. So after recent rumors and encouraging words I decided it was best to keep them potted in case i could take them with me. They will be planted by fall though , I struggle keeping them alive over winter too . They do great til February and bam , they die! I just hate to buy the same roses all over again !

Hallo ,luckily I have the nice pots left over from renting . It is expensive to buy nice ones and I do want the patio to look nice too ! I only spent about ten dollars a piece on these and only a few at a time.

Today I bought more soil to move some into the fancy pots. I have 5 left so I thought I could upgrade a few more.

I can definitely talk pot getto!! Haha

Lilyfinch, I think you’ll know when you’re done with babying
pots/cuttings/young plants. And, certainly the not knowing if there will be a
job transfer is a good reason to keep them potted. It will save you a lot of
work if you do move. (But, I hope not!! I love the photos of your yard and
surrounding landscape!)

My pot ghetto story started several years ago when I bought
a few really fragrant roses. I had no idea about how to grow them or that the deer
found them delightful! Anyway, while I was thinking about where to plant them I
realized that we would be doing a home remodel in the future some time which
includes a new fence around our pool that’s likely connected to our house
rather than just enclosing the pool. Hence a barrier (hopefully) to the deer.
SO, I decided to keep them in pots and build a temporary fenced-in pot ghetto.

I've been wanting to document this so I hope you'll bear with me...

2015 (very unstable fencing, approximately 12' x 10' space)

2016 (moved to a roomier area, better fencing, but not critter safe - most everything in pots, one shade structure)

2017 (enlarged area, wire mesh base, raised beds, patio space for sitting, new "climbing wall," some flowers in ground between pots, two shade structures)

During this time, my love of
roses has grown (approx. 70 potted roses) and our yard remodel hasn’t occurred because my husband has
wanted to focus on his retirement which he is now just achieving – along with
funds to work on the design of our home/yard remodel. So, it’s been a long
wait, but I’ve just been enlarging and enhancing my pot ghetto each year. Since
I worked so very hard this year on building raised beds and enlarging the
fencing this past Spring I’m feeling like “THAT’s IT!”

I plan on working with a landscape designer to figure out
whether to have roses within the landscape or keep more of a separate rose
garden. I have a lot of questions!

I also have a lot of anxiety about how the roses will do
once they’re planted in the ground because I feel like I have a lot of control
over sun exposure and soil composition so it’ll probably be a whole new
learning curve.

My pot ghetto has been permanent since 2006. However, this year I'm cutting it way back by 1. not replacing winter kills and 2. Squeezing more into the beds. I just can't do as much as I used to so something has to give. The pots seem to be the best choice.

This photo is from last season. They look terrible this year because I haven't been able to take care of them. There are 44 of them and I hope to get it under 30 by the end of season.

To the left of this line of pots are my seedling tables. A lot of these will get culled this year too. About 35 here and I want to cut that by at least half. A lot of them are really nothing special.

I actually have some bands in temporary pots until the fall when I will plant them in the ground or in large outdoor terra cotta pots, and yes it's super expensive to buy all matching large terra cotta pots. I do see it as an investment because I am renting and they will ALL come with me when we decide to buy. Even a few in the ground will be dug up and transported lol! The pot ghetto is in my backyard where no one can see but is also very small even compared to yours Lilyfinch! It's a ghetto nonetheless lol. Haha!

Wow ! More great responses!

Towanda , your garden pot ghetto is really beautiful! Are the red rocks native to your yard or did you have to buy them. I love rocks ! Ha is that weird? Your shade structure is a great idea and I love your sitting area. Let me say I can feel the heat coming from your pics! You know when it just looks hot out!? congrats on your husbands retirement now he can help you with your projects more ! ;)

I have often wanted to meet with a designer too .. it will be so neat to see what they can do with your ideas !

Siel, I remember a lot of your wonderful posts from years back and all your pots !! They still look great ! Love your little tables used to hold seedlings. We get so much wind here I'm afraid they would just blow right off ( we have to get shingles replaced all summer from the storms here ! And the roof isn't old ) . Everything looks so neat and tidy!

Va Joh it will all be worth it when you buy ! From what we have seen from you , you really have a great eye for design. When I moved from Pennsylvania to tn , it was a surprise move so I dug up roses small enough, put them in garbage bags ( and not carefully! Like hacked them back and crossed my fingers ! Lol ) and drove them here to our hotel then to the rental . Though that was 5 years ago and I can't remember what lived and didn't . I just couldn't leave them behind!

My in laws are coming to visit in two weeks and surely do not understand what a pot ghetto is . They are the sweetest , but neater than a pin and I need to get this looking organized. And not like the lowes clearance rack :)

Thanks Lilyfinch. The red rocks are native. I go out "quarrying" for the larger rocks and the small red rocks are from my digging up the raised beds and pulling out all those rocks and buckets more! Back breaking!!! That's why I'm taking a break from more landscape work myself. The sitting area is more like a crash from exhaustion area. lol You have good design ideas - maybe you should help me!!

Seil, I just love how neat you are with your pots. That's fantastic. Your yard is lovely.

Vah Jon, I've bought plastic terra cotta colored pots for my pot ghetto. They're lightweight and much less expensive for temporary use. They actually don't look too bad.

Thanks everyone but I have to admit that it doesn't look that neat all the time. Must have just tidied up for the pictures, lol!

Yeah, I'm looking at mine with a sort of baleful eye, lol.There are more than I can count easily sitting out there in their pots,and they all should get planted out eventually. But I so do not want to have to spend next summer the way I'm spending this wretchedly hot and dry summer. During fall and winter I lost all control and wound up planting or moving over 100 plants (roses and trees for the most part). So now I'm stuck spending all my energy on getting water,bringing it out to my land, and watering... AWFUL! So this coming fall I've got to practice some kind of self-control: no new roses! and limit the number of potted ones that I plant out!!! the sad thing is that this was my intention last year, too, and I utterly and totally failed...

Wow! All your pot ghettos look like they've undergone urban gentrification! I'm happy with my pots so long as they're the correct size. I use whatever fits since it's generally temporary, often plopping a plastic pot into a terracotta one to make transplant & winter storage easier. For the public areas I use stone-look fiberglass or terra cotta and stick plain plastic ones here and there in the beds. I'd love some of the glazed pots you've shown. seil, your colourful pots are so cheery. Where did you find the white caddies?

Lilyfinch, this topic made me go out and count my own pots and was horrified to find that I have 19. Ack! How did that happen???

Most have a designated spot and I'm waiting for cooler weather to plant them. The rest present a problem of some kind. Two weren't doing well so I potted them up, hoping to get them healthy enough to give away. Four are "bonus baby" bands that came with bands that I ordered. I separate them and pot them up individually when I can because they do better. Now I'm not sure what to do with the extra's. One came last year and is still in a pot because it doesn't look like the rose that I ordered. I have been waiting a long time for it to bloom. It looks like a climber and I'm not sure what to do with it if it is. One is a wonderful rose, hard to find, that I knew would do well here. It became available so I got it, even though I'm not sure where I'll put it yet. Then there's a mini that I bought on a whim to fill a shipping box. It is bigger and more wonderful than I expected. I don't have a spot for it but I can't let it go till I try.

Sunshine, your areas look great!! I hope you will share pics of your florentina as it grows up. I think a whiskey barrel sounds so charming for that area and rose !

Bart I hope all those pots don't stress you too much !! I know they can represent work to be done and that can look overwhelming. Of course it dosnt feel that way when we order or buy them does it ? Haha

kes , can you swap them maybe ? I just started doing some cuttings so I can swap and it's so exciting! Or is there a new bed to start ? I'm think I may do a mailbox garden with extras .. but I'm afraid to alert local deer that I have roses . I'm sure they know.. but I'm still leery .

All of my pots are plastic. They're lighter weight and don't crack in the winter. I learned that the hard way my first winter. I lost about half my pots and had to do major repotting. I look for end of season sales and have had good luck at Walmarts and ACE Hardware. I love color and don't mind that they all don't match. The roses are all different colors so the pots blend right in. I do try to put the roses in pots that don't clash. Although I'm sure somewhere I have a bright red rose in a purple pot, lol!

LOL I like a mixture of colors Seil. I think that's wonderful. Like a rainbow.

I have however noticed I've been color coordinating our new babies a bit when we are placing them in the ground. That cooould be my OCD tendencies raising their head. Dunno.

Hahaha! Even though all except 3 are in pots, I do try to place them by size and complimenting colors. Not sure if it works, but pretty limited by
space. We have a large patio, but as you can see the yard is oddly shaped and small with it being built up about 4-5 feet leading to a lower yard with apple trees (ugh) and a garage. I guess being in the city and alley way has it's downside. But it's ok, it's only a rental as we save for our own home which WILL have a better landscaped yard. I probably will still have a pot ghetto of some sort though LOL. Never enough garden space :)

half the small yard is raised beds for veggies

Sarah, that looks lovely. How nice!

I started out originally in all pots 20+ yrs ago because we lived in a mobile home park and we knew one day we would move out, so I wanted to easily move them to the new location. Hah! Took us 11½yrs to move outta there, and over 800 potted roses, including around 200 minis at the time. My poor sister-in-law who helped us load the truck up for several days, ended up with carpal tunnel from hauling the pots back and forth!! I now have several permanent and semi-permanent pot "ghettos" around the yard at our house.

These are basically permanent ones over the new septic tank. I may plant some in the ground as time goes on, but there will always be some here due to not being able to plant in ground there. You can kinda see the former "dog pen" in the background. That is now my veggie garden/rose pot ghetto area.

This is a temporary pot area. If I can ever get my husband to remove the pile of old wood from the trees that got cut down 2yrs ago (off to the left) then I will begin planting two more rose beds there. Altho I got a bunch of horrible bear's breeches that have to be permanently dug out of there. Not gonna be an easy job!

This is the (hopefully) not permanent potted area... where all the new roses come in thru and get potted up. Lots of little gallon ones and 12" pots. OMG, this was last yr, and that whole raised bed area to the right is currently overrun with blackberry! Acckk!!!

Thought I had a pic of this area after I finished it up. Guess not... Just put the rest of the weed barrier down under the whole pergola area. I have permanent pretty pots all around each of the 4 supports, with 2 climbers at each one.

Can't find pics of the other pot areas. I have a bunch at the breezeway, in front of the kitchen and down below at the perimeter fence towards the front. There's frickin' hypericum growing there that I thought I annihilated over 10yrs ago, but put potted roses there "in case." Well.. "in case" has happened. It's grown back and is crawling out from under the weed barrier and plastic I put down under the pots. Plus the blackberry is rampant along part of the outside of the perimeter. Ugh... depressing...

Hahaha Beth! Frickin hypericum! You guys crack me up!

Sarah , your pots look great!! It's exciting to be saving for a home and you get to test out the roses in the meantime. I like to rearrange my pots and it's nice to see things changed around.

Beth - 800 pots you had to move?! My goodness !! Still though your pots look great and i admire your hard work with all the weeds you endure. Your love for the roses really shines through! My bird feeding garden got overrun by weeds too. It's actually just grass that sprouted, and grew quicker than my other seeds did. I don't know what my plan for next year is . I really wanted zinnias and cosmos and sunflowers but I only have sunflowers. Had to just run the lawnmower over the rest . There's always next year , I say , every year :)

I love the term 'pot ghetto'. There is a truth to it (crowded, overflow) that makes me smile every time I see it print.

That said, none of the pics posted so far look like ghettos to me. I think they look more like 'pot paradise'!

All these nice orderly pot ghettos! I'm with Ben. These are NOT ghettos. I have a real pot ghetto, several actually. I don't think I'll show them after seeing these nice "pot neighborhoods". :) Lisa

Exactly, Lisa. These folks have gentrified (or 'rosiefied' ?) their pot ghettos! Now those of us with real ghettos are ashamed to show ours!

The first time I heard the term, I thought it meant that big pile of dead plants still in their nursery pots in a heap out at the back of the garden, waiting to go in the trash.

haha ! Flowers , I do have dead pots of flowers but I take them to my compost pile ! Ben and Lisa , still show off your babies! Lol . Trust me they don't all look great .

Oh no, the pile of dead plants isn't a 'Pot Ghetto, it's 'Home Depot Death Row'.

Similar, but much nicer, is 'Lowe's Clearance Bin', where you might be able to bag a very good and cheap rose. I've posted this elsewhere , but here's my Heirloom from Lowes Clearance Bin, an ambitious little plant that will get promoted out of the pot ghetto. It's surrounded by some homeless hibiscus.

Beth, 800 potted roses :).. how did u manage to do that.. true rose lovers of the world are around here.. love to c that;)

NOOOOOOO POTS!!!! I had 2 potted roses in a window well to keep them alive over winter. They drove me nuts!! I kill everything in pots except roses in my basement over winter! I don't even have potted plants in my house! Too much water?? Not enough water?? When to fertilize?? AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!! NO POTS!!! :) Whew, glad I got that out of my system!

Rebecca

That was in 2000 that we moved 800 roses. Took probably 20-30 trips just for the roses. We also moved our household stuff ourselves in the truck. Took weeks to accomplish. We keep saying we're sick of living in CA and would be nice to move out of state, but we're getting too old for that and having to dig up and move all the roses now???? OMG We ( I ) have almost 1800 now. So that ain't gonna ever happen... LOL

Hi Lily! I'm so happy with our Florentina in the whiskey barrel. No flowers yet, but look at this growth in 2.5 weeks...

Remember July 14th-

Today, August 1st-

I'm miiiight be turning our porches and pool deck into pot ghettos now? Yipes!

Since my first post on this thread I've added a potted Diamond Eyes and a whiskey barrel Alexander Mackenzie to the back porch, and a potted Ebb Tide to the pool deck. This is in addition to the 3 gallon babies that have wait to go in the ground behind the patio, and the 7 other babies settling in to the pot ghetto nursery on the front porch.

This might be indicative of a problem? ...Although I do have the flower snob hubby seriously talking about a greenhouse now. Heh heh heh.

Florentina looks so happy there! And your pool deck is gorgeous from what I see , and the pots and barrels only enhances that space . I love to see pots styled with other plants and need to venture out myself into more variety . Girl, you and your plant snob are doing a great job!!

Thank you!

I really appreciate your advice and encouragement. :-D