Placing Plants: Pots vs. Ground

  The placement of plants is a decision that must take into consideration many factors. Before owning a house, I only had potted plants, and to recap, only one (an aeonium) ever survived! One of the most immediate things you can do to perk up a sad-looking plant is put it in the dirt, the real dirt. Of course, one still has to determine what area of ground will be the best for the plant.

My succulent cutting garden. The furniture is 1:12 dollhouse furniture from the 1980s.

  The first decision to be made is whether the plant should live indoors or out. In Southern California the fairly mild to warm climate supports quite a large variety of succulent plants, and worrying about plants getting frostbitten is something very rarely worried about. The one thing that can and does happen to some of my succulents is that they are too delicate for full sun. This applies to different types of succulents, but its good to know that young plants are easily burned in hot sun and must be given some sort of shelter until they reach adult size.
  

Grew "under" another adult plant.

  The mesembryanthemums in the indoor window box I grow cuttings in were on clearance at Home Depot. They could probably be planted outside, but I'm not comfortable putting these rock-shaped plants in the ground. I KNOW they'd get stepped on!

The cuttings garden is a safe indoor area for baby plants. 

The un-ID'd baby succulent loves its safe home.

  You can see in the photos where I have set baby plants from leaf cuttings atop the potting soil to grow safely indoors. Yes, I have used seed beads, crystals and rocks to cover the soil and make it purty. Well, "fairy gardens" are in now, aren't they?

  

 

  These three pots contain some of the smaller or more delicate plants. For instance, in our lovely lady on the far right is a small piece of that wacky jade plant they're calling "Gollum Fingers" these days, but in front of that is a haworthia that I had originally planted out of doors. The plant was just too delicate for direct sunshine, so I brought it indoors. Haworthias are popular indoor plants, especially in Asia, where cultivators have bred some frankly weird and wacky plants.

"String of Pearls" is NOT an easy grow!

  A plant that I potted but kept outdoors is this still-tiny string of pearls plant. It finally has grow some new leaves (those bulbous "pearls"), but is not thriving at all in its location of direct sunlight. I only potted it because its a trailing succulent, but  since it's in a pot I already have the flexibility to place the pot itself in a shadier location.

A "crown of thorns" euphorbia and a "bunny ear" grafted cactus

  The biggest problem I have with potted plants is keeping them watered! The above photo has a euphorbia with lovely orange-pink flowers. After planting it in that pot, I neglected it. When I finally started regular watering again, the new flower growth was pale yellow and white! At least it stayed alive, and it appears that the color is changing back to the terra cotta pink seen above.

A week after being in the ground.

   Back to the ground; if you want a plant to really grow, you've gotta give it room. This piece of floribunda would never had survived had it been in a pot. By sticking it in the wet earth near the hose spout, I've got a revitalized plant. I've never experienced this sort of regeneration with potted plants. Every plant I've left in this condition dried up and died in its pot.

Six weeks being in the ground.

  Controlling plant growth is something that a pot can assist with, but just because you've got a plant in a certain sized pot does not mean it will stop growing to fit the container! Plants should be repotted at least every two to three years. What putting a plant in a pot does do is prevent the plant from sending out underground shooters that pop up as pups. Of course, if I did have my agaves in a pot, they'd probably just skip the long rhizomes and make the babies right against the mother plant.

Agave pups broke ground about three feet away from mom.

  To wrap it up, then, most plants thrive in the ground, but succulents do grow quite well in pots. Succulent growers in cold climates will want to pot their plants so that the plants can be moved to warmer areas during winter. Pots might slightly inhibit your plant from reproducing, but not to a noticeable degree. In fact, I keep all of my cuttings in the kitchen, and here's the latest batch of will-be-plants:

All echeveria leaves, I believe.

Adorable Surprise in the Climbing Aloe

  At least twice a day I inspect the garden for new growth, damage to plants, and the effectiveness of the drip system. I peruse the place before leaving for work and again when I return home in the evening. If I'm very lucky I'll run into one of the many-legged denizens of my yard. This particular morning I was lucky enough to find, in the climbing aloe of all places, a monarch caterpillar preparing to cocoon!

  One of the nonsucculents I grow is a tenacious and twiggy milkweed. Monarch butterflies drink the nectar and lay their eggs on the leaves. The eggs hatch and the caterpillars use the plant as a nursery and kitchen, chomping away until they grow large enough for their metamorphosis. At this point the caterpillar leaves mama milkweed and finds a hanging structure with some height to install itself in cocoon form. Usually this happens along the flagstone section of wall closest to the milkweed, or occasionally the woody lavender bush. Somehow, this little larvae crawled all the way across the yard to wind up in the aloe!

  It was pretty obvious from the pose that it was time to spin. Yes, those black lumps on the spiderweb ARE caterpillar poops!

  The insect wasn't quite ready to spin yet, and started a curl-up when I got too close. This afternoon I arrived home to find:

 

 Aw! I missed the action! If I keep the milkweed I'm sure I'll have another chance!