Do you vacation with your plants??

[ctreelmom]

It happened again this year I had 3 beautiful hanging baskets, one fuscia and two geraniums this year that were just gorgeous when we left for a two week vacation, and upon my return, they are dead or dying. (My pet sitter doesn't like to touch plants, <<sigh>>) I don't completely understand why as I heard we had a good bit of rain while I was gone and the flowers I planted in large containers are doing great. Anyway, I'm wondering if next year, I should just make room in the car and bring them with me! Our TS at Smuggs has a deck where they'd look very nice.

 

[CarolF]

Hanging baskets dry out so much quicker than conventional pots. Quite often its that wind/breeze that dries them out. My suggestion would be to take them down before you leave and put them on the floor in a location sheltered from the wind but not the rain. Place them on a shallow tray with a little water and hopefully the rain will keep the tray filled with water during your absence. Perhaps the pet sitter will be OK to check there is water in the tray and fill it if it empties (leave a filled watering can next to them).

I put all my indoor plants in the bath tub with a few inches of water when we go away and they usually make it through 2 weeks.

Plants can suffer on car journeys from heat in the car/sunlight through the windows etc plus they can be very messy if they tip over.

Hope this helps.

 

[falmouth3]

My neighbor asked me to water her hanging plants when she was gone for a week and I watered them every other day. They still dried up and died. I don't do hanging plants for myself anymore because I can't keep them going.

Sue

 

[Cheryl17]

A few years ago my parents offered to water my hanging baskets while I was on vacation if I brought the plants to their house. Putting the plants in my SUV was a bad idea: the crickets that I didn't know were living in the plants starting jumping while I was driving! I don't regularly vacation in the summer, but next time I do I'm going to put my hanging baskets in an area of grass where they will be shaded from the afternoon sun and set up a sprinkler on a timer to water them twice a day.

 

[Sandy VDH]

I have given up on hanging plants in Texas. They only survive here if you water them at least twice a day.

For outdoor plants, you can also buy a plastic round kiddie pool and put all the hanging plants in there with some water while you are gone. Get your petsitter to just make sure there is water in the bottom of the pool up to the point where it overflows the lip on the plates at the bottom of the hanging pots.

 

[Elan]

I just move our outdoor plants to an area of the yard where they'll get hit by the automatic sprinklers.

 

[geekette]

I would not take them on vacation, but would put them in a tub in a shady part of the yard that could hold the rainfall. Or even take them out of the pots and give them a nice hole of fresh topsoil and compost to sit in while I'm gone.

hanging planters seem to dry out very quickly.

 

[Carol C]

I staycation with my plants.

 

[ctreelmom]

Thanks for the suggestions. You know, someone had suggested leaving the plants in water, but I couldn't visualize what type of container to use--the inflatable kiddy pool would be perfect--will look for one on end of season clearance for this purpose.

 

[Debbyd57]

We left our outside container plants and hanging baskets in the bathtub when we went to Texas this summer. They did well. The only downside was cleaning out the two bathtubs they were in.

 

[CarolF]

You know, someone had suggested leaving the plants in water, but I couldn't visualize what type of container to use

Just remembered, one year I took the hanging baskets down and put them each in a plastic bag (large garbage bag) folded the excess plastic down to the top of the basket then used plastic clothes pegs to hold the plastic in place. I left them in a sheltered place where they would catch the rain. It worked well because the plastic held the water and also stopped the wind from drying the basket out.

 

[Jaybee]

When I used to have ferns in hanging baskets, I'd take them down and put them in buckets of water. It always worked for me. How sad to see your beautiful plants die. Jean