February and March is the time to repot just about all your overwintered plants. The days are getting longer and the plants are beginning to wake up from their winter dormancy. Potting them into larger containers now means that those stretching roots will have the ability to grow and produce a larger plant. And, as we all know, larger plants produce more flowers. Use a pot that is one or at most, two sizes larger than the current container. The accepted garden wisdom is to move from a four inch pot to a five or six. I broke that rule with some plants this week but in this case, the citrus trees were seriously under-potted and while it would have been better to move them up one size, the larger size will work better to balance the heavy top growth and I will not have to repot them in another few months. Even your normal houseplants will benefit from being repotted now. If they have grown well over the past year, reward them with a larger pot. My bay tree didnt do all that well over the winter as it resented the lack of sunlight and missed its greenhouse setting so Im not going to repot it. It will probably make another year in its eight inch pot. But the new Trachelospermum tricolor (Variegated Star Jasmine) with its pink and green variegated leaves has done well so it is going to get a larger pot. This award-winning plant is a sure-fire winner and should be available this spring at better garden centres. Its vine-like habit grows to five feet tall and has fragrant flowers to boot. Mine will live in its pot outside this summer and will come back indoors as it is a bit too tender for my outdoor garden. Repot! The time is nigh. |
