Posted: 9/12/2016 11:01:25 AM EDT
We are new homeowners so all this is new to us. We just got out flower beds built this weekend. It sucked far more than I imagined, unloading two tons of stone and 50 bags of mulch.  I hurt all over.
we did it right, used the weed barrier, a layer of top soil, then mulch. However, My wife wants to use plants in pots that can be brought in in colder months. Has anyone planted a Italian Cypress or a Spiral Juniper in a pot before? Internet is full of conflicting information about how well they will do. We want to keep them pretty small, <6'. 
What are some other plants that do well in pots y'all would suggest for a flower bed this size? |
| Potted plants fucking suck ass. You're either fucking yourself by moving them inside and outside all the time or changing our dirt for some other shit later on down the road. I always plant something drought tolerant, likes a lot of heat and sun, and comes back every year so you don't have to start over again. |
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Wait, so you spent all this time and money to make it where nothing actually grows in the flower bed and you want to put everything in pots and have it look good?
I can see some pots, but no anchor plants? Let me tell you about pots, nobody wants to go out and water that shit every day. You can tap some drippers onto your sprinkler system if you have one, but if you move your stuff inside, you've got all the dripper hose to deal with. `And then where do you put them in the winter? Garage? Are you building a greenhouse to heat and store these things? And you still maintenance on the drippers, but inevitably, they stop working for whatever reason. I just went through this at my kids school. The landscaping sucked, so I ended up putting in 8 15 gallon sized pots around the different entrances to make it look nicer. I was doing 4 to 5 change outs a year to keep it looking nice during the seasons. Twice in the winter, Spring, Summer and another for August when school started. No one wanted to water it, so it was my ass dragging a hose. Not a couple of times a week, but DAILY in the HOT SUMMER months. There's stuff like sedums and succulents that will take the dry hot weather with damn little water, but it definitely doesn't look as good as something like supertunias. |
My experience with potted plants tells me to leave them outside. If you bring them in, they have bugs and slugs in them. I stepped on what I thought was dog crap in the middle of the night, to find the biggest slug I have ever seen squished on the floor, and on my foot. The slime trail led back to a rubber plant we had put outside for the summer.
I suggest knockout roses 1/3 the way in, at 2 ft. spacing, with holly bushes against the house. That is what I am doing next year after we take out what is there. |
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Try to find a nursery that sells plants with the Texas Superstar label. They are the toughest plants available. We have a rose bush that we never water, fertilize or put insecticide on. Not even the drought hurt it. We gets a lot of blooms on it. I can't imagine what it would do if we didn't ignore it. |
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Wait, so you spent all this time and money to make it where nothing actually grows in the flower bed and you want to put everything in pots and have it look good? I can see some pots, but no anchor plants? Let me tell you about pots, nobody wants to go out and water that shit every day. You can tap some drippers onto your sprinkler system if you have one, but if you move your stuff inside, you've got all the dripper hose to deal with. `And then where do you put them in the winter? Garage? Are you building a greenhouse to heat and store these things? And you still maintenance on the drippers, but inevitably, they stop working for whatever reason. I just went through this at my kids school. The landscaping sucked, so I ended up putting in 8 15 gallon sized pots around the different entrances to make it look nicer. I was doing 4 to 5 change outs a year to keep it looking nice during the seasons. Twice in the winter, Spring, Summer and another for August when school started. No one wanted to water it, so it was my ass dragging a hose. Not a couple of times a week, but DAILY in the HOT SUMMER months. There's stuff like sedums and succulents that will take the dry hot weather with damn little water, but it definitely doesn't look as good as something like supertunias. The sedums and succulents take the heat and dry weather well. They also flower for some nice color. I like the lemon coral sedum. Nice neon green plant with yellow flowers. They start small and spread out like a ground cover. If you planted brumuda grass you better plan on fighting it growing into your flower beds. Also consider some Rosemary. We have a couple in direct afternoon sun. We barely water them and they grow well. |
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I suggest knockout roses 1/3 the way in, at 2 ft. spacing, with holly bushes against the house. That is what I am doing next year after we take out what is there. Yes on the holly, no on the roses. Those things are dropping like flies. http://plantclinic.tamu.edu/2011/07/13/rose-rosette/ http://www.agrilifebookstore.org/Rose-Rosette-Disease-p/eplp-010.htm There is no treatment for Rose Rosette. I spoke to Dr Ong a few weeks ago and the best solution they have right now is the development of resistant varieties. I'm sponsoring one of his sessions at PPA next month. |
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Try to find a nursery that sells plants with the Texas Superstar label. They are the toughest plants available. We have a rose bush that we never water, fertilize or put insecticide on. Not even the drought hurt it. We gets a lot of blooms on it. I can't imagine what it would do if we didn't ignore it. http://texassuperstar.com/ |
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The sedums and succulents take the heat and dry weather well. They also flower for some nice color. I like the lemon coral sedum. Nice neon green plant with yellow flowers. They start small and spread out like a ground cover. If you planted brumuda grass you better plan on fighting it growing into your flower beds. Also consider some Rosemary. We have a couple in direct afternoon sun. We barely water them and they grow well. 
These have never been watered, other than rain and they're sitting on a concrete slab , for at least the last 10 years, getting ready to bloom. |
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Boxwood Shrubs, bushes, whatever the eff they are called.
What's the dark green, small leaves, with sharp point end of leave, bush? You see them all the time shaped into flat top bushes along the fronts of peoples houses. Those two plants can stay outside year round. I live in DFW so they've seen some frigid temps. Then you're wife can replant the cheap-o die off in the winter flowers every spring. VIOLA! |
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If you get pots...get painted ones. Terracotta dries out too fast. I have grown to hate pots. Our front is pretty much like yours.
1st go round...... Dug out bunch of dirt, laid down barrier and red mulch, wifey cuts holes in barrier to plant stuff. weeds grow through, but plants do good. 2nd go round....dig out all the faded cypress mulch that hasn't floated away and apply new barrier and new rubber mulch and use pots...spend many days watering pots now and plants still die. The only ones that really last in pots are the herbs. We have 2 monstrous rosemary plants and a decent size basil. We did have one Calibrochoa that did real good until we left on vacation once and it died. I would bring it in the garage in the winter and it would bloom all winter. Good luck. |
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Boxwood Shrubs, bushes, whatever the eff they are called. What's the dark green, small leaves, with sharp point end of leave, bush? You see them all the time shaped into flat top bushes along the fronts of peoples houses. Those two plants can stay outside year round. I live in DFW so they've seen some frigid temps. Then you're wife can replant the cheap-o die off in the winter flowers every spring. VIOLA! I think you are thinking of a wax leaf yew. Maybe a holly. Sperry likes dwarf yaupon hollys. |
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I think you are thinking of a wax leaf yew. Quoted:
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Boxwood Shrubs, bushes, whatever the eff they are called. What's the dark green, small leaves, with sharp point end of leave, bush? You see them all the time shaped into flat top bushes along the fronts of peoples houses. Those two plants can stay outside year round. I live in DFW so they've seen some frigid temps. Then you're wife can replant the cheap-o die off in the winter flowers every spring. VIOLA! I think you are thinking of a wax leaf yew. Yeah, there's a boxwood blight that's been working across the SE US for the last 3 or 4 years now. Red tip photinia also have some crap that infects them, makes them look like hell. Here's another good planting guide: https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Watershed/growgreen/plantguide.pdf |
| No expert here, but try to find a good local plant nursery to talk to. My dad redid all the plants beds at his house this summer and met a good nursery nearby to talk to instead of the big box stores. They had him take pictures of the front of the house hourly to see the varying sun/shade and then helped choose plants based on that. They also have a program where you can buy trees and they will hold them for you until later in the year when its better to plant them. |
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well, I need to have y'all over so we can "decorate"  Quoted:
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I recommend empty beer cans and bottles. well, I need to have y'all over so we can "decorate" You made the mistake of posting yard pics. We can turn that fresh lawn into a tent city. I will bring the keg 
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Quoted: You made the mistake of posting yard pics. We can turn that fresh lawn into a tent city. I will bring the keg Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I recommend empty beer cans and bottles. well, I need to have y'all over so we can "decorate" You made the mistake of posting yard pics. We can turn that fresh lawn into a tent city. I will bring the keg   |
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I recommend empty beer cans and bottles. well, I need to have y'all over so we can "decorate" You made the mistake of posting yard pics. We can turn that fresh lawn into a tent city. I will bring the keg
http://i.imgur.com/Zarw8Ej.jpg?1  white trash.
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Have you thought of Lantana for color and fill? After it gets going you have to do very little watering. In the winter it gets cut back and returns in the spring . You can get flowers most of the summer with very little work. It's also cheap for what you get. This man speaks the truth. |
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Quoted: Italian cypress may free or may not freeze out in Dallas. Houston or Austin, I'd go for it. Just be careful you don't get something tall and all of a sudden people think there's a cemetery nearby. A lot of mites in the Austin area on Italian Cypress. I removed 4 of them this year that were about 30-40 feet tall. (Commercial) I would avoid pots and plant appropriately for the shade/sun and look for low water use. In my front yard (shade in the afternoon) I have knockout roses, blue plumbago, asian jasmine, mondo grass (getting pulled and replaced with liriope) with a back drop of viburnums. Very little water used now that they are all established. |
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Yes on the holly, no on the roses. Those things are dropping like flies. http://plantclinic.tamu.edu/2011/07/13/rose-rosette/ http://www.agrilifebookstore.org/Rose-Rosette-Disease-p/eplp-010.htm There is no treatment for Rose Rosette. I spoke to Dr Ong a few weeks ago and the best solution they have right now is the development of resistant varieties. I'm sponsoring one of his sessions at PPA next month. Quoted:
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I suggest knockout roses 1/3 the way in, at 2 ft. spacing, with holly bushes against the house. That is what I am doing next year after we take out what is there. Yes on the holly, no on the roses. Those things are dropping like flies. http://plantclinic.tamu.edu/2011/07/13/rose-rosette/ http://www.agrilifebookstore.org/Rose-Rosette-Disease-p/eplp-010.htm There is no treatment for Rose Rosette. I spoke to Dr Ong a few weeks ago and the best solution they have right now is the development of resistant varieties. I'm sponsoring one of his sessions at PPA next month. I just Googled the rose rosette disease thing. I will read it again when my brain is working (noon or so). Thanks, but it looks like I am hosed. Is that what is wrong with my tomatoes as well? This year all of the neighborhood tomatoes suck. At work, our roses are not doing bad, the big leaf stuff looks like I have not watered though. |
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Your roses will be fine as long as an infected mite doesn't find your shrubs or you accidentally bring in an infected bush. You don't want to spend money on something, plant it and then have to dig it back out a few years later because it died.
Tomatoes are finicky sometimes. Ours did fine this year. I think people get a little too wrapped up in them sometimes. Ours just needed some water and we finally got tired of picking them. |
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There is no treatment for Rose Rosette. I spoke to Dr Ong a few weeks ago and the best solution they have right now is the development of resistant varieties. I'm sponsoring one of his sessions at PPA next month. Yeah Dr Ong is an excellent resource and a great guy. Meet him and his family thru church back when they lived in Collin Co. |
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Yeah Dr Ong is an excellent resource and a great guy. Meet him and his family thru church back when they lived in Collin Co. Quoted:
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There is no treatment for Rose Rosette. I spoke to Dr Ong a few weeks ago and the best solution they have right now is the development of resistant varieties. I'm sponsoring one of his sessions at PPA next month. Yeah Dr Ong is an excellent resource and a great guy. Meet him and his family thru church back when they lived in Collin Co. He always gets me, chinese guy with a bow tie and that belt buckle. |
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Ugh that's going to cost an arm and a leg. Quoted:
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I got a professional coming to look at it next week. Ugh that's going to cost an arm and a leg. Yeah, we had someone come out...ridiculously expensive....we are doing it ourselves, will take longer, but my guess is we are doing a better job... |
| I would specify that you want stuff you can actually find at retail nurseries in your area. I get requests all the time for weird stuff that someone found in a book and spec'd for a specific job. Yeah, it's native to West Texas, but no one produces it commercially, so you'd better get your ass out to West Texas and dig some up if you want it. |
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Call your county Agricultural Extension Agent. They can help. I don't know if every county has this or if they are still doing it but our local ag office had a program. They gave classes and when you finished you were a master gardner. It was free. All they asked in payment was for you to go out and help people with their gardning issues. It is definitely worth calling and asking. The agent may come out. I have had friends call and the ag agent came and tested their soil so they knew what to do to get a nice lawn. |