I ’m posting this bonehead error I made for new gardener . Know that you will always make mistake , even if you ’ve been garden for ten , as I have .
I lie with well . It ’s cathartic . Terra cotta pots expand and shrink with the weather because they ’re made of clay ( technically a clay - ground ceramic ) . Therefore , you should n’t keep them outside all wintertime , where they ’re open to iterate freezing and thawing . The ultimate result may be a overnice bountiful crack that splits the pot wide open . Usually , sometime in October , I put them in my garage and memory theflower bulbs I ’m overwinteringin them ( dahlias , calla lily lily , and the comparable ) . I did that with all but one pot this year and I paid the price .
Blame it on the hyacinths
It ’s the hyacinths ’ fault . I roll in the hay them , adore them . Their magnificent heyday signal that winter is definitely behind us , and it ’s time to start growing vegetables and other fun affair . I have gobs of hyacinths engraft in my garden : short ace , tall ones , purple single , pinkish ones , and blanched ones . They really put on a blazing display . But I want to savor their magical scent up close – I ’ll admit it ’s almost like a drug to me . So I also want a pot of hyacinths on my porch in the spring where the perfume can waft over me while even let the dog out to do his concern for a few minutes . Sure , I could buy a greenhouse - grow hatful of hyacinths at the garden center in April – I have many clip , but I need a LOT of them on my porch next spring . SoI bought a package of bulbs and arranged them in a terra cotta pot last November . I figure that I ’ll add some Viola tricolor hortensis on top in April , and it will be wonderful .
Hyacinth bulbs need a period of cold weather to bloom
hyacinth need a “ chill ” catamenia of at least 13 hebdomad below 40 F to bloom . So if you ’re not implant them in the ground in the fall , you either have to keep them in a plenty outside from late fall into wintertime or cool down them in your fridge . I pick out the pot outdoors .
Of naturally , I sleep together better . I should have used a plastic flower pot . But all were otherwise occupied or plain old ugly ( I ’m not potbelly - shaming , but I want something not garden - center black on my porch ) . Being the cheapskate I am , I did n’t want to buy another pot , so I decided to throw circumspection to the wind and use a favorite terra cotta pot .
Well , I was never favourable at gambling , and Mother Nature schooled me again . The pot break up from top to bottom . And not just a superficial wisecrack – this one run all the elbow room through . Now I have to grease one’s palms a plastic pot for the hyacinth anyway and replace this beautiful , aged terra cotta pot that I ’ve had for many year . I wo n’t make that mistake again . But I ’ll plausibly make a dissimilar one .
From the pictures below , it may not appear that the crack is too bad . But it ’s all the means through the pot to the dot that it may decrease apart . I carefully localize it into a larger credit card tummy until I can supercede it . Yes , it was one of those black garden center pots . That ’s irony , is n’t it ?
