Potting Houseplants Into Decorative Pots

My goodness that is bright. I brought my lights in closer and um I think that's going to work better for the camera. For my eyes not so much. There's a lot happening right now. Hey what's up gardener friends? Jeff here. I hope you're doing well. I'm great. I started recording without having planned anything out so we're just going to see what happens. I came out here to the grow space. I had some stuff to get done. Mostly little things. Some repots. It's currently three and a half degrees outside so I'm just you know piddling around in the house and now out here in the grow space trying to find some activities to do. It's past time really. I need to go outside. Would like to go outside. It's that urge. I want to be outdoors but can't and we're supposed to be getting a whole bunch of snow here sometime soon so yeah. This is what's going on over here. On the desk I have a bunch of new plants. Don't know if that video will have been out yet or not. I don't think I thought this through. Keeping things sequential. It's not that important. Anyways this right here. Lovely terrarium plant. I think that I'm going to try and squeeze this into one of my terrariums so I want to make sure I put that someplace where the air from the fan is not going to get to it so it will dry out instantly. Those heart ferns. I love them. I think they're awesome ferns but man do they dry out fast. Right here I have a Janet Craig Dracaena which is just a lovely specimen of a little chunky plant. I was thinking I want to put that maybe into this container right here. It has a chip taken out of it. It was broken but it feels pretty sturdy. I think that would look nice in here. Yeah? I don't know. I have two other pots to choose from. One back here that has a Sansevieria hanging out in it right now. Look at that. I know it's a lot but for some reason I really like it. It's a choice. It's an interesting pot. Then I have this guy back here which is much more subtle but also um you know more birds. I don't know why I went to the store and came home with two pots that have birds on them. I don't know what happened there. It just kind of did. So this container though I was thinking when I bought this that this would probably be something I use more for winter time. Well it is winter time. It won't be for much longer. So this is probably something I'm going to put away with my holiday decor and this is I don't know. I don't know. I'll bring it back out when I'm doing like lemon ball cypresses or poinsettias, amaryllis, those sorts of things. I don't know. It does look nice though. I feel like my grandma would have really enjoyed this. It probably would have been in her bathroom like a grandma's bathroom planter or in the kitchen maybe with the mustard yellow kitchen tiles. Anyways that's not very productive. I need to pick out a pot. Well which goes in what doesn't really matter right now. I need to put a hole in the bottoms of these. I grabbed this one right here that I started popping these orchids into. Those are for another project. I'll set them somewhere else. I wish I'd done that before I started recording. Oh well. Yeah they all need drainage holes right? Wait do you have a drainage hole? Well that's weird. I can feel it. There's an indentation here on this one. Can you see it? You see that little? You can't see it. I'll see how well that comes off. Oh those freaking tricky bastards. That really made it seem like there was going to be a hole there. That's okay. That will just be a spot that's going to be thicker and more difficult to drill through now. Diamond tip with water. So you know you do the water and then you you know do the thing and I keep the water running very slowly until there's a hole. Good lord that took a long time. I think it's time. I think it's time probably to get a new bit for this. It's still got some grit left to it but I don't know. I've had it for several years. You got to replace them every so often. Probably had that one for too long. They all drilled just fine but the two from Lowe's that would be this one and then the other bird pot. Wow. Look how thick the... let me see if I can grab it. It's over here. Look at this. Right here. It's the thickness. I know it doesn't look like that much but for a pot that size that's pretty thick so let's just assume this is gonna be a nice hefty long-lasting container. All right hopefully I've left enough room here for the potting pad to go up here. This thing's been fairly nifty. I had that big... well the thing. I don't know what it's called. The big plasticky one that you do repot then and that's been great but this fits the desk a lot better. I can't use it for doing things like mixing the soil up. That has to all be done ahead of time but otherwise otherwise this is just fine for what we're doing. So I'm thinking in this pot what about that begonia? It's between the begonia and the sansevieria and the only reason to not use either one of them is the same reason. Right here. Can you see? See why maybe both of these might not be a great option? Okay well I'll tell you. This guy right here it's over potted. This needs to be moved into a smaller container. That's going to rot and die. This one right here it's not over potted but it certainly will be when I put it in here. It's a begonia. They're pretty tough so I'm not all that worried about that. I just... I don't know. I think that that looks nice. There's a lot going on there. It's very busy which might be a reason to put something more simple in it. Like well I can pop that Janet Craig in there. We can get an idea of that would look better with something more calm and peaceful in it. Yeah well shoot that does look nice doesn't it? I kind of like the effect of having something that's just peaceful and green up top in there. Thing is the Janet Craig I was planning to put in my guest room and I would like to have something more neutral in the guest room which would mean the bird pot for the Janet Craig because I think the other ones are too small. I'm sorry you know what I'm just going to figure this all out and we'll come back later. No reason to torture you all with all this unless it has something to do with something horticultural right? Something as far as the plant's health is concerned. This is just a matter of aesthetics and I'm sure nobody cares. Okay see this is why I don't my planters with patterns on them pretty much ever. I'll do but that's you know that's totally different. I don't know why it just is but anything with the pattern on it then all of a sudden I get very matchy matchy. I'm like well that works that doesn't that doesn't it doesn't matter right now I'm going off of pot size it wants to be better for the plants. The begonia is going to do best in this size container right here and I like this container because it's solid and has a heavy base to it and these guys they get big and I like to flop around and you know I don't want to have to worry about it falling over so that's what I'm going to do. I have some soil over here off you can't see it I'm mixing up soil over here. It's a sandy well-drained all-purpose potting mix. I know that doesn't tell you much but it's everything you need to know. Look at how loose and fluffy that is. See it's very nice silky has that nice silky feeling to it. I think that's going to be good for this. Begonias you know they want some moisture retention of course but they also want things to be very well drained. This one's very wet because I just gave it a big drink yesterday and it was on the drier side of things so it was quite the drink. I just let it sit and soak actually it wasn't that much of a drink. I let it to soak for probably a good 15 to 25 maybe 30 minutes. I let it soak until its leaves perk back up. This one is ready for a new container so it was just constantly thirsty but I don't want to over pot this because that means you just have a lot of water sitting around the root ball and it is winter things are warm in here but it is still winter and the next several days to possibly few weeks who knows might be very chilly outside and it's difficult to keep things that warm in here even with the big heater. It's a 10,000 watt heater but that only does so much when it's you know six degrees outside. Right now it's 67 in here but that's because I have the heater off because I turned it off so we could film these videos. That's pretty good. I like to leave them down kind of far so I know some of you might want your plants up higher than that. I like them down far enough so that I can give it a big drink and not have to worry about everything flushing off the top of the container and I'm probably going to be re-potting this in I don't know four months something like that probably around May to June somewhere in there I'll be putting this up into a larger container when I have it outside. I just need it to get into a fresh mix and into a pot that isn't going to tip over like crazy. Get that sticker off of there. Oh oh almost almost a clean peel. Well that's all right maybe the rest will come off easily. Nope no all right well hey got most of it off. Yeah my brain just keeps doing it keeps saying you know you should have put something simple and green in there and I know I should have a little parlor palm that would be cute because the palm fronds but it's fine I needed a container for that. I want it to be heavy so that's a good one. Yeah I've just realized that when a container has a pattern on it I go from enjoying really lush and vibrant extreme contrasty leaves to being like no I just want something simple up top. There's so much going on down with the rest of the container. I want the Janet Craig in this container that was the idea when I bought the Janet Craig. This Dracaena if you don't know the Janet Craig compacta they are very very easy to grow typically very long-lived houseplants and this container belonged to a dear friend who passed away that's his name on the bottom of the container right there Matt so I just I don't know I just want to put something in there that's simple and will be long-living. I get weird with stuff like that well I can't put something there it's gonna die not that it matters like something bad's gonna happen no I don't know I don't know why I am the way I am that's just the way my brain works I want something easy and peaceful in this container so the Janet Craig it is and it's not too much of an up pot for this either really it's the perfect size to bump this up to just a little bit of new soil on the bottom a little bit of new soil on the top I don't really need to do anything with those roots I think they look fine and this is going to be perfect in there look at that look at it's like a glove like a glove that's left a little bit of room for your hands to swell that's what I mean you don't ever want these things to be like a glove right defeats the purpose of putting it into a new container other than I just think that it looks a lot nicer in a new container I have to do this very slowly so this is just potted up in that cocoa peat stuff that Costa Farm uses which is fine but uh there's not a lot to it if you're going to use something like that you need to be ready to fertilize on a regular basis and when I have the plants in the house I don't do that all that often they get mostly just continuous release and this time of year they won't even be getting that the Janet Craig doesn't really need it but it's good to go ahead and fertilize these plants but like I said they don't absolutely need it it's going to take more soil than I thought I don't want to bury too much of that stem but I also want to make sure that I've gotten all the air bubbles out the problem is the mix as you saw the root ball on this it was fairly loose up top but rooted in really well at the bottom so it's like the soil on the top just kind of crumbled around everything I want to make sure that there's some of this good new soil around there because this other soil has some more to it that will help liven up that cocoa peat there we go I think that's good yeah oh that looks nice simple clean not quite centered dang it how did that happen get in the center I didn't even even move it around it didn't even have room to go anywhere I think it's because the plant was growing at a slight angle in the pot so when I straightened it out it ended up being at an angle I got to go through the bottom and kind of scoop them the other direction to correct for that here we go there we go yeah that's better okay give this one a scooch then I need to go grab a clay pot to put that sansevieria in I really want to make sure whatever it goes inside it's going to dry very quickly I found it I found a great pot for the sansevieria look at that that's fun isn't it wow it's really a lot of reflection there it's just a simple pot it has a name but I had to drill a hole through it it's the out escher wave square white five inch I don't know whatever that means I think I got these from our botanical gardens the Missouri botanical gardens a long time ago like a really really long time ago it would have been in a video I think maybe 2017 2019 maybe I don't know that's not even important I just I think that this is that's gonna look nice would that no okay well hey it was worth trying except not really because I need to get this plant out of this soil that's not going to drain well it's not going to be great for the plant so take it out is the same thing important on it no just as bright tolerate slow water every two weeks keep above 50 degrees you got all this space on this tag look at all the room that's on here you can say so much more than that you really could it just says super durable that's true they are durable I just you know could talk about fertilizing well-drained spoils something like that with the plant's toxicity it says not intended for human or animal consumption or more cost of farms dot com slash plant warnings all right well that's more than a lot of places to put on their tags more info on light and water cost of farms dot com slash care no that's it that's why if you want traffic on the website all right well it doesn't matter I think this is a variety that's called something like sunshine maybe I cannot remember all I can say about this guy is that it has really nice variegation on it and if I kept it in this potting mix then it probably would have died look at that that's not going to drain well it's very very it's not clumpy just too much moisture retention there are barely even any roots on this thing anyways man they just jammed a cutting right in there and like yeah we'll send this out in like what six weeks maybe if even it's fine kind of not really this was not ready to go out but hey on the bright side look at how easy it is to get that soil out of there when it doesn't have a ton of roots so that's nice yeah I'm gonna do something with that it's coco peat which is a fine mixture just not one that I tend to use because it just doesn't work well with my acidity of the acidity of my water or lack thereof I should say plants don't do very well in the coco stuff for me not long term they will for a while and if I amend it enough then you can help you know with that but by amending usually have to add things like peat so or defeats the purpose of using it I like it in blends for things like aeroids you know I like the coco peat and stuff with the orchids the coco coir what it is right and it would probably actually be totally fine with the sand savaria but I don't want to have to go dig out sand and gravel and everything I would need to mix that into a cactus blend I don't feel like doing that the mix I'm using has a whole bunch of sand and perlite added to it a little bit of pumice it's going to drain very very well nice and sandy sand savarias love a sandy soil I'll lightly tap it down I bet I'm probably going to need a good amount of soil for this and this is actually probably not the smartest container to use for this plant because it's going to be difficult to get it out look at all the different bumps that those roots can go into but you know the nice thing about sand savarias well one I can keep in this pot for a long time for many years and also um my other point which I forgot what it was as I reach over to get more soil oh I mean if need be when it's time to repot it and I can't get it out of there you just take a sharp knife and you just cut it and pull it out they re-root pretty easily there we go that's that nestled down and I'm going to gently tuck some of those roots down not too far all right that is a perfect size I do have a whole bunch of what I was talking about before going on here with there being like oh well this is quite large so gonna have to be very careful about water with this because there's gonna be a lot of you know just moist soil around the roots that's the sand savaria so I probably won't even be watering it all that much really just gonna be giving it little sips here and there that'll be about it because well they just don't need it this time of year in the summer probably give it more this will get watered well I actually like that tag said maybe every two weeks I think that would be good I feel like I should top dress this but I don't know if I have any gravel that would look quite right with this I look like I should top dress it because that helps secure these guys in places you saw this basically planting a cutting here a rooted cutting but there's just not much to it make sure that that white line right there I want to make sure I have enough soil in there to cover that up and I'll poke around for some gravel but I'm pretty sure I don't have anything that's going to work in there that looks nice doesn't it I think that's the perfect pot for this it's simple and it's clean it has me thinking that I think I want to I'm going to pull that out of it it was just going to keep bugging me we can do better I have somewhere over here here we go right next to me here we go look at that it's a set right and I just look at that that's going to look so sharp makes so much more sense I have a frost peperomia and I think that that would be perfect in this container well it's not quite big enough to put it in there yet but someday it will be I don't know while we're at it these other plants are being slightly over potted so I guess I could try and put that peperomia in there and see what happens may as well get it done right lift this guy up very very gently I didn't pack that soil down so it should come out yeah there we go yeah that came out just fine perfect soil level too and give that a shake yeah well it's the same thing I just did you get it okay so there's that peperomia that's why I had this thing gonium here both of them need to be potted up into something else we don't need to be they're fine like this neither one of them are under potted I just think that the peperomia is not big enough for this one right I don't know I don't like it I don't like it the peperomia for one I just the shape of it's off it's stretched so it needs to get some more light and then it'll fill up we'll get some bigger leaves on there so overall I just think that it's just the shape of the plant that I'm not crazy about right now also I do like to put these guys into a wider container when possible because it's a lot easier to water them the way I'm watering them I'm not pouring water all the way down into the crown whenever I water this in this container I'm going to have to very gently lift the foliage up and pour the water down in there and hope that I'm not getting too much in the middle which the peperomia is there it's like an African violet where if you get water there in the middle it's just going to rot and die but I don't know they just do better if you can avoid having water collecting the crown now I also have the syngonium here which no I don't like it that's not going to work it really I got both of these plants whoa whoa what's wrong with the zoom there I got both of these plants with the intention of them going into a terrarium anyway so probably shouldn't be using those I do have this cryptanthus back here it's not all that big but it's a pretty awesome plant isn't that beautiful I don't know I kind of like it it doesn't make a lot of sense I think that's why I like it or haworthia I think that's the way to go this was also meant for a terrarium so I'll put that back over there and grab the things that actually need a container work with those that makes the more smorced it makes the most sense yep that'll do clean and it's simple this container is going in the guest bathroom which just is an area that doesn't get a lot of attention tends to be more on the cool side during the winter so I want whatever's in here to be well probably a succulent or something that just doesn't give a crap like that janet craig just seen them back there this is a haworthia con color yeah a lot so it'll dry these are so easy such wonderful long-lived plants look at the color there's a texture I should say this is a nice plant too really big well-established plant things are pretty moist in there when I was inside just now that's where this was it was in the ikea greenhouse I keep in the window inside that greenhouse is cold I felt the counter it's cold it's a garden window and it sticks out I don't think they inflated it very well so I'm thinking I might need to grab a heat mat to move all the plants put a heat mat down and plug them set the plants on a heat mat in there because it's just gonna get colder right now I think it's down to four something like that fahrenheit and potentially get down to negative six negative four something like that I think it'd be a good idea it seems like a lot of work for what's gonna be three days of cold but yeah probably the right thing to do all right I like that I do want to top dress it so it looks good I wish I had some white gravel but I don't I just have dark rocks and I think that'll be fine too I want to top dress it largely because oh my goodness my gosh what's going on in here look at that that's some interesting colored stones in here a whole bunch of them what is that called peacock ore I think that's what that's called I might have something different let me look there you go I knew it got a whole bag here full of fun colored rocks not white which would look really good in here but hey since I don't have white we may as well have fun with it that's just garbage that's a well that's a turtle okay well hey now I know where my missing turtle went this is they call it a dragon's egg I think don't remember what kind of rock it is where they polish it on one side and it's just that's a nice color on the inside here this is a makeup brush what is going on here I'm thinking that I must have had a big clean out of stuff that was on my desk I used this desk you know it's a set for filming videos years ago and I just dumped all kinds of things I think I used to use this on the plants I'm talking a long time ago like maybe 2017 2016 perhaps I don't even know I'm not really sure but this is oh I have lots of amethyst in here that's too big now let's go with the blue which I can't remember the name I think it's called amazonite maybe try and get that so you can see it that's a nice color to it but I don't know if I have small enough pieces of it in here to use good lord what is that oh that's just a polished stone my god wow all right hey I need to reorganize all these anyways found the turtle shell we give that back to the turtle the soapstone turtle yeah like I said I think this is amazonite but I'm not positive I think that would look nice but these pieces are really big I can go through and we can just pick out some little ones find some little pieces yeah oh that's gonna look nice a little bit extra but that's all right I think that that's that's fun sometimes go ahead and just be extra with your extra-ness if you have the things to be extra with here we go that's a good one like that there we go so never got to making the point the reason I want this top dressed with something is well it's a mixed bag right so if you top dress these then you run the risk of things holding in too much moisture when I say these I just mean succulents but this container was hard to plant up without getting soil into the rosettes here and it's so much easier to use compressed air just to get that out of there so having some type of gravel or top dressing in there makes it so I can get in there and you know blow stuff around I think I could probably find some smaller pieces in these big chunks because those that's a bit much I'm gonna dig around yeah that's good that'll do see I got a bunch of little guys only little ones I was able to find tucked in there now I can take the air and blast all those soil out that's in there that will be good make less of a mess the Haworthia perfect bathroom plant as long as there's some light right they do need light but they're just so easy and low fuss and that's going to be in the bathroom with the Dracaena the guest bath that's probably in the bedroom that'll be in the bath and that you know they're great because you don't have to water them all that often the Haworthia they have in the house they get watered well once a month if even I have some in my office that I water maybe every two or three months and they're fine because they're not getting a lot of light they get some light but not a ton if they were getting more light they'd be getting watered more often not this time of year though yeah that looks good so these right here these little pups they'll continue to grow and they will fill out the top of this container it probably won't take them that long either it's a really really nice established clump yeah okay all right well hey that was fun got some plants repotted thanks for hanging out through the chaos of me you know making up my mind about things and being somewhat indecisive as I said it's cold outside we're trapped in the house all this snow and everything's gonna be coming tomorrow let's get some stuff done do some potting talk to the camera hopefully it was entertaining and not too obnoxious with the back and forth necessities of everything I like it I have had these two containers for a very long time and I've wanted to plant them up for years I've only ever used them as like a cash pot sorry cash pose for the fancy people out there who like to say everything properly yeah so they've had like anthuriums in them and you know pop an orchid in them every now and then but this is a proper planting with a drainage hole it will probably suck trying to get these plants out of here more so the begonia when that roots in but we have a while for that not that long it probably wasn't a smart choice or should have probably potted this up into a round container that just fit perfectly in there but you know it's fine that's fine it's gonna be worst case scenario we cut the begonia up into a bunch of pieces and we root all the pieces and then get the root ball out and repot it you know it'll be a thing but not that big a deal yeah I'm just excited to have those plants it up this is gonna be really nice that puts up another pup or two just got all that foliage up top man the dirt really goes everywhere when you're potting stuff up out here that's one of the reasons I do not do white pots very often that's going to drive me crazy it's okay we'll just deal with it later all right yeah hey hope everybody's doing well having a great day a great night everything's going absolutely beautifully for you and of course as always and most importantly everybody keep on growing bye bye