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Putting a container in a flower bed

B3B3 Posts: 21,435
in Plants
I'm going to move a large terracotta container with a large, mature tess of the d's rose in it (container and all) onto an empty space in a flower bed but I'm dithering over whether or not to put a plate or something under it.
The plate would stop the roots going into the soil and hold onto the water but maybe contact with the soil would allow it to soak up moisture or maybe it would leach it out. And then there's the possible ant nest issue
As you see, I'm all of a dither
Any advice would be welcome.

In London. Keen but lazy.

Posts

  • punkdocpunkdoc Sheffield, Derbyshire border.Posts: 11,211
    I'm afraid my only thought,is why not plant it out? Probably not much help.
    He calls her the chocolate girl
    Cause he thinks she melts when he touches her
    She knows she's the chocolate girl
    Cause she's broken up and swallowed
    And wrapped in bits of silver
  • Joyce21Joyce21 Posts: 15,489
    B3, in one of my beds I have a pot with a ground cover rose in it.  I have sat the pot on top of a broken slab as I don't want the roots to go down through the pot and into the soil. 
    SW Scotland
  • B3B3 Posts: 21,435
    It's awful fussy about too much sun so I want to see how it goes. It's happy in very light shade but it's getting in the way.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Leicestershire, UKPosts: 11,336
    Bad idea to put pots straight on bare soil as the drainage hole(s) will soon get blocked by the roots or just sticky soil, as I think you already suspect.  Can you put 2-3 bricks or similar under it? 
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • B3B3 Posts: 21,435
    Fate has lent a hand, Bob and provided a compromise.
    We put it on an old dinner plate which promptly smashed so drainage won't be a problem and we can move her if she sulks.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • ObelixxObelixx Vendée, Western FrancePosts: 27,562
    I moved a Tess of the D's rose from a west facing trellis position to a pot so we could remove the trellis to let a mini digger thru.   The pot was placed up against the south facing house wall and she thrived and grew much better than before so we left her in her pot for over a year.   

    We put the trellis panel back afterwards but Tess was eventually re-planted in the back garden against a south facing trellis and with a shelter belt behind to stop cold winter winds and she did very well.  Lovely rose.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • B3B3 Posts: 21,435
    edited June 2018
    Yes. She was a couple of years in the wrong place and looking sickly and diseased. I'd lost patience.  I cut her back to sticks and moved her . She was on the way out when I got round to it!
    Literally,within six weeks she was produceng healthy leaves and flowers. 
    Another thing I'd done wrong was to allow things like geranium s and toadflax  to self seed in the container. 
    In London. Keen but lazy.
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