Repotting Galanthus

[johnw]

This is an incredibly helpful thread. I am looking for pots too: 3" wide and 5" tall.  Does anyone in the US know where I can get this size?
Carolyn

Carolyn

Would  3.5"d x 5"h by ITML fit the bill? The code is SQV0030D.  They're a bit tippy so we buy the corresonding flats too.

Go to the ITML website and browse on deep pots in the green search bar.  ITML was formerly Kord.

johnw  - -8c here this morning.

[JohnLonsdale]

Hi Carolyn,

This is probably not much help but sometimes here in the UK I've seen small clematis plants in pots similar to the size you are looking for. Maybe a US clematis grower may know where to get the pots you want.

Mike

Hi Carolyn,

Try Anderson Die & Manufacturing - http://www.andersonpots.com/products.html - their bands are excellent and deep tree band product 2008 (2⅞" X 2⅞" X 5½" deep) may meet your needs.  I know a lot of folks who use them and are very happy.

Best,

John

[Carolyn Walker]

Hi Carolyn,

This is probably not much help but sometimes here in the UK I've seen small clematis plants in pots similar to the size you are looking for. Maybe a US clematis grower may know where to get the pots you want.

Mike

Hi Carolyn,

Try Anderson Die & Manufacturing - http://www.andersonpots.com/products.html - their bands are excellent and deep tree band product 2008 (2⅞" X 2⅞" X 5½" deep) may meet your needs.  I know a lot of folks who use them and are very happy.

Best,

John

Thanks so much John, i will look into this as the dimensions are right.  Carolyn

[JimF]

After much searching and experimenting I find the Anderson pots the best for bulbs. I have a 400 plus potted collection (less then half galanthus lest anyone gets too excited!) of bulbs, some perennials, and a few shrubs.

I do have to cut out a square of window-screen to place over the enormous drain holes in the bottom to keep soil from tumbling out and slugs taking up residence.

The pots come in many sizes. A few I find ideal are the "3Ds" (3" deeps), which John mentioned, good for 1-2 galanthus bulbs; 2Ds for small twin scales, offsets, and seedlings, 4Ds for 3-7 bulbs, and the the super long 5Ds as I call them are for Iris reticulatas and single corms of colchicums. The company also sells flats appropriate for different sizes. Of course different depths and widths for different genera and sized bulbs.

Though time and time again I've been told or read that galanthus don't do well in pots, I've been growing them this way for 10 years, at least with great success. However I can not let them freeze. It's a 45 minute marathon running flats into the garage when freeze is called for. Like having milk cows - no rest or vacation during winter! But very pastoral and bucolic when all's sunny and blooming, like now.

Hope this isn't too commercial but such pots are hard to find in N.America and are very good.

Jim

[johnw]

Though time and time again I've been told or read that galanthus don't do well in pots, I've been growing them this way for 10 years, at least with great success. However I can not let them freeze. It's a 45 minute marathon running flats into the garage when freeze is called for. Like having milk cows - no rest or vacation during winter! But very pastoral and bucolic when all's sunny and blooming, like now. Jim

Great to have you join the Forum at long last and we look forward to your many & varied plant experiences.  

I too grow many snowdrops in pots but I can't say they are terribly lusty or as rapidly offsetting as ones in the ground.

Seems we live in radically different parts of the country when it comes to winter cold.  However it is no surprise that you too cannot allow Galanthus in pots to freeze without losing them.  Here it seems even a brush with air frost of -2 c and slightly lower)coming down from the top and through the sides simultaneously will kill a Galanthus dead in time.  Yes they do recover when thawed but some sort of resultant permanent root or outer scale damage eventually does them in.  As I have mentioned in the past if the pot is sunken in woodchips, bark, sand or soil in a coldframe the bulbs and roots can withstand anything our winters can offer up (the obviously tender ones - peshemenii etc -excluded), even 4 months of below freezing and lows in the upper -20'sc.  Mercifully we haven't had such a winter for twenty years.  Now the question is why will a slight freeze kill that potted bulb and not extreme low temperatures when sunken. Of note our native Canadian Hemlock is only root hardy to -7c and many a nursery has lost their CHs that were inadequately protected.  There may be the clue here.... but it escapes me.

johnw   - +1c

[Maggi Young]

Hope this isn't too commercial but such pots are hard to find in N.America and are very good.

Jim

Good to have you around again, Jim!

No worries about being commercial... this is useful info, given in response to a member's question.
Thank you!  

[johnw]

I do have to cut out a square of window-screen to place over the enormous drain holes in the bottom to keep soil from tumbling out and slugs taking up residence.Jim

Jim  - We tried the Anderson pots but as you say they require screening in the bottom. Still they were a haven for sowbugs and we gave them up.

johnw - +2c and grey

[JimF]

Now the question is why will a slight freeze kill that potted bulb and not extreme low temperatures when sunken. Of note our native Canadian Hemlock is only root hardy to -7c and many a nursery has lost their CHs that were inadequately protected.  There may be the clue here.... but it escapes me.

johnw   - +1c

Thanks for the welcomes. If I don't respond right away I only get to wifi twice a week otherwise it's dial up so I can't access the forum.

John - the answer to why a plant in a pot exposed to freezing air all around is less hardy then one sunk, is in your email: the freeze penetrates from all sides killing active root tips at the bottom and sides. There's no where for them to go for protection except the center, which may freeze, too.

A sunk pot only gets cold from the top down. Heat is moving up from the soil even if just a temp or two above freezing. I could keep many plants in sunk pots alive in Alaska, where I grew up, at -20F for weeks but with the marvelous insulation of snow cover. (Cold moves up, too. When the ground froze to 20' at a friend's one winter, it often took weeks for it to "rise" out of the ground before plants could get to growing.)

Mild Seattle/Bellevue temps wreak havoc on pots on tables or on the ground, as I have to grow them. I wish I could have a cold frame but living in an apt. with a 7' x 10' concrete patio precludes that. Not to complain. Even with a week of freeze there's no winter here compared to home!