Planting flowers on the ground with pots and all

 I had my gardener plant perennials in my garden last week.  They were
about seven. Once finished,I asked him what he did with the containers
the plants came in, he told me he had planted the flowers in theirs
containers.   I always thought you needed to remove the plants from
their containers and plant them in the ground.  He says no. Any
thoughts?
thanks
mara

 
Unless the pots were biodegradable, he is almost certainly being a
cowboy - tell him to do the job properly.

There are perennials that will be happy planted in their pots, but
there are others that will most definitely not be.  Any perennials
that are intended to spread sideways will not be, as will those
with fleshy or shallow roots.  What species did he plant?

And the pots will be a menace if you ever want to divide a clump
of perennials.

That doesn't mean that you should NEVER plant in pots - it is a
standard way of constraining perennials that you want to restrict
in size (but it works for only some).  It should never be done by
default unless the pots are biodegradable.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

 Nick, thank you for the excellent advice.  I had my worries, but after
reading your message, they have disapeared.   I guess is going to be a
new gardener from now on.


Thanks.

Mara.

...................
Nick Maclaren wrote:

containers

 

   You're right to be suspicious.

   Get someone to pull up a pot for you. Very easy, they won't be in
deep and in the circumstances won't harm or disturb  the plant in the
slightest. If it's the usual kind of pot,  smooth plastic with a bottom,
and a few drainage holes,  you've been had. If it's made of paper or
mesh or has an open bottom, it may be biodegradable/intended for
planting, and can be replanted.

  If it's the usual plastic plant pot used at garden centres  there are
two possibilities. Either, your "gardener" doesn't know anything about
gardening and has ripped you off.  Or, he does know,  and hopes the
plants will die of thirst/starvation before next winter, so that he can
rip you off all over again next year.

   Janet.

 Thank you Janet.  Some of the pots are plastic, others aluminun, but
all have holes in the bottom.  I had some doubts, and wasn't sure if
this was the proper procedure or not, so I posted my questions to you.
 I am not going to call him to do any more work for me, because I got
the feeling he knows better, but since I'm a single woman, he thought
he could rip me off. This is his loss, because I was planning to give
him more planting for me. I won't be calling again, what I will do, is
dig up the holes up again, and remove the pots, planting the flowers
once more, only this time it will be in the ground.   (At least the
holes are opened, so it won't be too hard.)   It's a shame to have
people take advantage of people, but I refused to think most people are
like that.   He may had done it because he thought it was proper.  I
should have asked his reasons.

Thanks again for such good advise.

Mara