Finally getting around to my hanging planters. I think I mentioned that one way to save a little money when doing planters is to buy a larger basket and divide it up, so I thought I’d demo that for you. I bought a planter of calibrachoa (aka million bells) at the local Jewel grocery store — I don’t remember the price off-hand, but I think it can’t have been more than $10.
I needed to fill four hanging planters along my porch. As a first step, I gave the planter a good soaking; I actually did that a few hours earlier in the day. You want to reduce shock as much as possible, and a long drink is usually a good idea. Then I flipped it over and out of the pot — with other plants, I might’ve been more careful not to smush the flowers, but calibrachoa is super-tough, and I knew they’d be just fine.
Then I took my shears and cut an ‘x’ through the roots. These aren’t particularly overgrown, so it was easy to just pull it apart into four sections with my hands, gently disentangling the flowers that had intertwined. If the pot is really overgrown (more likely later in the year), you may have to really cut it apart with the shears.
Plant it quick, now — you don’t want those roots exposed to air for a long time, drying out. I tucked each quarter in a hanging basket, mixed with some tall geranium for the center (thriller), more calibrachoa in a cheerful pink-white stripe (filler), and a variegated ivy (spiller, along with the calibrachoas).
And then one more long drink of water for each pot (which also lets you spray water to clear up your planting area on the porch…). I’m going to be extra-careful to give them daily drinks the next two weeks, to help them recover from the shock.
All done!
