Painted Lady Question

15 years ago

I'm new to these plants, so I'm not sure if this is considered a tree or a shrub....I'm getting these from Lowes on clearance ($3 each) they are in gallon sized pots and are about 3 foot tall, they are flowering and have many unopened buds and a decent amount of new growth.

Our winters are relatively mild here, we dont ever go below the mid 20's to low 30's and when we do, it's for a few hours and maybe for a few days in a row at most. We do get some frost, but again, it never lasts long.

I know I have seen these (or something in the same family) in landscaping in nearby homes. So, if I were to decide to plant these in the ground vs pots, will they be ok?

The tags on the plants have varying info , although they appear to be the same plants. One says cold hardy to 20 and another say 30-40.

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Comments (3)

gansn
15 years ago
I'd believe the 30-40 tag. Most of the tropicals really have a rough time if the temps fall below 40.

If you put them in the ground and mulch heavily, the roots might make it through the winter and produce next year, but you would be starting from scratch and I don't think the tropicals grow really fast.

Glenda
rjinga
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks Glenda
you wouldn't happen to be able to tell me how big of a container would be best? How big do their root systems get? I can more easily re-pot up after awhile then starting big now. Since they will be going in and out of my Greenhouse.

thanks!
gansn
15 years ago
I quit growing the tropicals a few years back, it just got to be too much to find a place to winter them in the house, but my friend who still does the tropicals never uses anything smaller than 14" pot.