Is this a thing…

[Fullofquestions1]

Admittedly my gardening knowledge is basic but I try to add a few plants etc to our low maintenance garden.
step 1 dig hole in flower bed
step 2 remove pretty plant from plastic pot and plant simple.

husband is watching and questions me removing the the plastic pot, he thought you kept them on to protect the roots…… I laughed and said never heard of that.

This was brought up at in-laws who are keen gardeners and his mum immediately kept to his defence and said he was right and you could plant them with the pots on.

all my garden knowledge comes from helping my Grandad as a child. Please tell me I haven’t lost the plot and plants should be taken out the pots when planting them in flower bed.

Probably should add she is one of those her son can do no wrong. Which is why I am questioning this.

You're right, they're wrong.

@Justmuddlingalong thank you I started to question myself.

There are biodegradable pots that you can grow seedlings in and plant straight into the ground, they look a bit like cardboard. But plastic pots, absolutely not - you need to take the plants out, loosen the roots a bit if they're a bit potbound, and then plant into the ground.

I guess you could plant them with pots still on if you want to constrain their growth, but I don't get why you would want that.

Of course not! The only time you'd do this is if you're planning on removing it after it flowers, I'd not even do that.

The only thing I would plant in pots is possibly mint in a herb bed to try and contain it. All others would normally be removed. Otherwise the roots have nowhere to go and growth would be stunted.

I bet the plants in their garden stay the same size 😂

No, don't bury plastic in the garden.

No, you don’t leave the pot on (unless it’s one of the biodegradable ones that are meant to left on)!

Some people do this with bulbs, so they can be dug up again and moved easily when they finish flowering. But it is only used for a specific reason, not as a generic technique. Some pots are biodegradable and designed to decompose in the soil once you have planted them, and they tend to be used for things like vegetables.

Keeping a plant in a plastic pot and planting that is ridiculous. You want the plant to grow its roots into the soil surrounding it, not be constrained in a pot, the only way out for the roots being the holes in the bottom.

You're right, they're wrong.
Tip: Fill the hole with water before placing the plant in the ground.

Can you ask MIL how the plants spread their roots if you plant them in the pots?

Oh, not for you, but I am interested in her reasoning here! Do they have a garden where all the plants are suspiciously small? Does MIL go out and move plants around a lot? Or is she thinking of those cardboard containers for plants which you can put in the soil (but don't look or behave anything like the plastic pots)?

Your DH and his mum are deeply weird. Do they not get what plant roots are actually for? And, more importantly, is the garden of every house they have ever lived in full of buried plastic (and unhappy plants)?

What? Why? My avid gardener mum has never told me that, am I missing a trick?

That's one of the silliest things I've ever heard. 😂 I'm Team Take The Plants Out The Pots, you know, like a normal person.

Unless you plan on lifting the plants at the end of their flowering season then this is totally wrong. Even so the plant would need to be given a larger pot before putting it in the ground to allow the roots to spread.

The only plants I would plant like this would those that are very invasive.

Yes. You want the plant to grow its roots down, plus it will have been constrained in a pot. By filling thr hole with water (which then drains down) you are giving the new plant a good soaking, better than watering over the top alone will do, which will help them get established sooner.

I fill a bucket with water and put the whole plant, pot and all, into it while I dig the hole. Makes it easier to get the pot off and makes sure that the plant is well soaked before it goes out.

LOL.
Get your DH to watch recent programmes (the Spring months) from Gardeners' World. Fifty percent of it is Monty digging a hole and taking a plant out of a pot . He then puts said plant (sans pot) in said hole.

He's been doing this for over thirty years and the Plastic Pot Police haven't got him sacked yet.

You are correct, Mil is wrong…
But very occasionally you might plant a contained pot in the ground if it’s something invasive like mint. Or very recently there are biodegradable hessian type “pots” but they're very new and only in the very poshest garden centre round here.

If what you're planting has been in the pot for ages it can be pot bound, so give the roots a good scratch to encourage them to spread out rather than just staying in the hole you've dug. And water well!

Where I live there are nurseries that have replanted large trees in pots such as olive and palm trees that they then stick in big holes to preserve water, while waiting for them to be sold. So perhaps the OP's dh and mil have seen these plants that are destined to be moved or remain in large containers?

Otherwise I have known unscrupulous landscaping companies not taking the time to fully remove pots and planting them so the plants are sure to fail after a year or two.

Thank for all taking time to reply and confirming what I suspected. MIL is a different one, she likely doesn’t even think it’s right her self she knew the plants weren’t going to be moved and actually was hoping they spread a bit which they have 😁 But she couldn’t possible say her precious son was wrong 🙄

i will be back for further advice soon from you lovely lot, thank you ☺️