About seasonal planters, re-potting and life after death.
Hot temperatures have rolled into Grimsby, along with the frequent downpours we’ve been getting. Even though the solstice is still a few days away, summer is firmly here.
It’s a great time to switch over, if you haven’t already, your spring planters for summer ones. These warm temperatures can support tropical plants and other experiments that don’t survive colder weather. It’s time for endless blooms, colour, and tropical vibes.
Last week, I was changing over a spring planter for a summer one. As expected, the planter was just at the end of its life cycle. However, some of the plants I had used are perennial. There were some bulbs, some candytuft, even some heather for a pop of colour, and of course the lovely primroses.
Many of these plants don’t support summer heat particularly well, and towards the end of their seasonal life cycle they also don’t necessarily get frequent watering as the time to change approaches. Many of these plants were struggling, but I noticed their foliage was still somewhat green. Some of their root systems, even though parched, still seemed intact.
So some of these plants were definitely still alive.
The plants whose foliage had completely died off and whose root ball held no signs of life, those I composted. But the ones that even had a slight tinge of green in their foliage, I thought perhaps they stood a chance for a second life beyond the planter.
So it was time for a little plant resurrection.
Some cases were obviously very green still. Some were just on the fringe. But anything that had any remote signs of life, I took with me and began the process.
I set myself up a small station.
All of the plants ended up in a yard waste bag, haphazardly piled onto each other. Next to it, I had a fresh yard waste bag for all of the debris destined for compost. I also set myself up with a regular bucket filled with water and a bucket of fresh soil.
Since these are secondhand resurrection plants, I just used whatever soil I had left over from previous plantings, a regular potting mix that had already been used once or twice.
Then I had a stack of pots of various sizes, mostly one gallons and nine centimetre square pots, with a few other different sizes for larger plants.
If you have everything on hand, it saves time later. It also helps to have a watering can filled with water and possibly a water source nearby.
The process itself was very simple.
I took the plants one by one out of the yard waste bag and had a look to see whether there were any signs of life. If there were signs of life, some greenery, a root system still attached to the crown of the plant, I dunked them into the bucket of water and left them there for a good ten to fifteen minutes.
As I sorted through the plants, the bucket got fuller and fuller until it was just a sea of wilted plants floating in what looked like mud.
That was exactly what I wanted.
Once the root balls were soaked thoroughly, I took one of the pots and filled the bottom gently with soil to provide a little cushion. Then I placed one plant per pot and filled around it loosely with more soil. Full, but not densely packed.
Once the plants were surrounded in fresh soil, I took my watering can and gave them a secondary good dowsing.
This packed the soil and ensured the plants were in a happy, moist environment that would give them as much chance as possible of being revived.
These plants had many dead bits and damaged bits. However, because they were in such a fragile state, I actually didn’t do any initial pruning.
I’m going to give them a couple of days and see whether this resurrection takes, whether the roots begin doing things, whether there are signs of new growth.
For now, the dead foliage stays.
Plant resurrection doesn’t necessarily have to happen in such dire circumstances, and it’s not necessarily only reserved for potted plants.
Recently I relocated a few hydrangea shrubs into slightly better conditions. Their root systems were still healthy and there was no major dieback, so they didn’t need this sort of intensive rescue. They simply needed a better chance. A little soil improvement, plenty of water, and a better location.
I wrote more in detail previously about shrub transplanting, so I won’t go too deep into that here.
But the principle is similar.
Some plants are finished. Some need replacing. Some just need a little more time, a little more water, or a slightly better place to grow.
And sometimes, before composting, it’s worth having one more look.