How Does My Pot Garden Grow?

My deck garden full of pots at the end of August 2016. It was a very hot summer!

How Does My Pot Garden Grow?

“…was wondering how your pot garden is doing? My mother started one this year and she is struggling with her tomatoes….” – Lisa

Hi Lisa, your Mom is not alone, this was a hard growing season for tomatoes. Between the record hot temperatures and the extremes in soil conditions – too much water one day, not enough the next – my tomatoes also did not do well.

However, now that temperatures are moderating, my tomatoes are starting to ripen so hopefully your Mom will soon get a late bounty as well.

One of my first beefsteak tomatoes to ripen this year, early September. Finally!

My green peppers and cucumbers were fried in our record heat; my eggplant start was munched on early on but seems to be making a good recovery, and my herbs are plodding along.

My eggplant has made a lovely recovery and shares a pot with purslane.

Basil, one of my favorite herbs, is growing in a pot ready to bring it in later this fall.

I actually caught myself thinking I may just stick with my deck pot garden next year instead of trying to plant a traditional garden. We’ll see, it was a humid day, the heat may have gotten to me for a minute or so but it’s not a bad idea. Planting in pots is much easier. I can better manage soil and watering conditions and better shoo away uninvited visitors.

Charlotte

Leftover Surprise Lilies

"...saw your surprise lilies on Facebook, so beautiful! I have a question. I moved my surprise lily bulbs this spring but a couple of them came up again. Do I move them now or do I have to wait until next spring to move them?" -- Lisa

Lisa, here are leftover surprise lilies blooming in one of the flower beds in front of my house, too!

Leftover Surprise Lilies

Hi Lisa, I have a few "leftover" surprise lilies myself!

If I had a flower of the month club, surprise lilies would be my August flower. This North American cousin of the traditional holiday gift flower Amaryllis blooms in Missouri when little else is in bloom. August is Missouri's dearth month, usually the hottest month of the year and when plants shut down to survive the hot weather conditions.

I also thought I had moved all of the surprise lily bulbs out of the corner of a front flower bed so I could settle an old bird bath under the rain gutter to collect rain water. Instead, two bulbs I missed digging up sprung up this August 2016, a little out of place now that the rest of the surprise lilies are gone.

If you don't have to move them this fall, I wouldn't. Let the bulbs collect energy over fall and winter over where they are currently growing. Then spring, when the leaves start peeking out of the ground, dig them up and move them.

Pick a rainy spring day so rain water will help settle them into their new location.

One of the secrets to successfully moving any plants is to dig them up in a ball of soil; most won't even know they were moved.

If you have to move them now, wait until the flowers are finished and gone to seed. Remove the stem with the seed pods. Leave 2-3 inches at the top so you know where the bulbs are. Dig them up with a huge shovel so you don't disturb the roots and carefully move them to a new hole that will fit the glob of soil you removed.

Water well with a pinch of all purpose fertilizer to help them get re-established.

Chances are if you keep them in soil, the move won't interrupt their growing cycle and they will bloom again next year. It's a technique I have successfully used for most of my plant moves in my garden.

If the bulbs are disturbed and have to spend energy re-establishing their roots, they won't collect enough energy to be able to bloom next year. It may take a full growing cycle for them to bloom again.

Now I took a different approach to my little leftover lilies. Instead of digging them up, I added three more surprise lily bulbs to the flower bed corner and watered well. No one would expect them to be growing there and that makes me smile. 

What can I say,  I love surprise lilies!

Charlotte

Wild versus Domestic Petunias

Wild versus Domestic Petunias

"I saw your posting on wild petunias. By any chance are they related to domestic petunias? I don't have any wild ones in my garden but I do have domestic ones...." -- Alice

Interesting you should ask, Alice. Although they look very similar, Missouri's wild petunias are not related to the more popular, and common, domestic petunias.

Missouri's wild petunia in bloom at Bluebird Gardens.

Purple domestic petunia blooming in a Bluebird Gardens deck pot.

Missouri's wild petunias Ruellia strepens are perennials that grow in rich open woods, streamsides, open valleys and moist uplands. Wild petunias are North America's version of the petunias purchased over summer.

Petunia is a genus of 35 species originally from South America, closely related to tobacco, tomatoes, cape gooseberries, potatoes and chili peppers. The popular flower of the same name derived its epithet from the French, which took the word petun, meaning "tobacco," from a Tupi-Guarani language. 

Can you now see the difference in the photos between the two?

Charlotte

Ailing Potted Tomato Plant

One of my Roma tomatoes growing in a pot on my deck at Bluebird Gardens.

Question About Ailing Tomato Plant

Of all of the plants we plant in our gardens, tomatoes may be the favorite. Knowing the plants are not doing well can be disconcerting, as one can tell from this email from Charlie in St. James:

Charlie: "O.K. Master gardner,I have a patio tomato in a large pot. It was so nice and healthy looking has on several tomatoes however I have been watching it turn yellowish brown on several lower limbs.Have you got any free advice on what is going on and can I correct the problem? Thanks in advance" -- Charlie near St. James.

Charlotte: Hi Charlie, your tomato is not happy with the record hot, dry temperatures. They like regular, consistent watering. In addition, sounds like your plants are missing some basic elements so give it half the recommended fertilizer in water to make sure they have the food they need. Plants in pots need a little extra help because the water in the pot vaporizes faster.

Good luck, let me know how they do!

Charlie: "Thanks Charlotte. I had the patio tomato on a plant stand about 2-1/2 feet off the very sunny concrete deck. Too hot there I moved it to a semi shaded spot in the back yard removed the sickly limbs fertilized it(miracle Grow) it came out of it in a couple of days looks great now. Believe you were spot on. Thanks again" --  Charlie.St. James.

Glad they are doing better, Charlie!

Charlotte