Pratt And Larson

The Pecks: How to root-prune a pot-bound plant

Here's all you really need to know about us.

Three years after moving into our new home and after pulling out countless berry vines and installing countless sprinklers and spending countless hours of hard work putting in our landscape. I (Dennis) was thinking, "Finally, we're done," and went to the grocery store.

But I returned from the store -- which is only five minutes away -- to find Marcia, shovel in hand, with every plant from our front yard dug up and sitting in the driveway.

So I asked the question any one would ask: "Uh ... I thought we were done landscaping. What's going on?"

And she smiled and said, "Oh, no. When you finish the backyard, you start over again on the front. A garden is never done. What would be the fun in that?"

I assumed she meant besides having free time to watch college football, so I bit my tongue because I knew whatever she came up with next would be amazing, and I couldn't wait to see it, no matter what it did to my back.

And that, in part, is why we have a stunning rock wall in our front yard, just one of the countless projects, large and small, we've tackled in the past 20 years.

Projects as small as swapping two beautiful (to my uneducated gaze) potted plants in front for two other beautiful (see previous parenthetical aside) plants in back.

But Marcia is the expert.

FROM MARCIA: Most outdoor potted plants don't want to be root-bound, although few ever state their displeasure in so many words.

Instead, they prefer what Dennis claims is a more passive-aggressive approach. They'll look punky, won't take up water and nutrients and will have little new growth.

Another sign -- if they could talk, he insists, this would be a lot easier -- is when roots are growing out of the drain hole and water sheets off the top.

All these mean it's time to root-prune. Most potted plants appreciate being root-pruned every two or three years.

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