We have all been guilty of it. We see a plant that we like, in fact it is love at first sight. We must have it right away, now, without delay. The only spanner in the works of this burgeoning affair of the hortie heart is that we can’t plant it out straight away. There could be many reasons for this first hiccough in our relationship. Perhaps we are off trekking across the Hindu Kush and can’t rearrange. Maybe a total revamp of the garden has been planned and it can’t be used until the Japanese Tea House has been built. Or maybe a little juggling needs to be done before it will actually fit anywhere. So it stays in the pot. It then gets shoved in a cosy corner for the winter with good intentions to give it our full attention in the spring. In the spring it looks a little grim so we keep it in the pot for a little longer to recover. Then one morning 20 years later, it has become a 3m tree. Still in its pot.
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Off The Edge Gardening 
Hilarious.Yes I do recognise the horti condition though the Hindu Kush was never unfortunately a good excuse.Your piece really made me laugh.Thanks
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That is good, hope all is well with you all en France x
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That is extreme! I have a little pile of red onion sets which are threatening to sprout before being planted out but unfortunately I’m not in the Hindu Kush or even building tea houses.
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It was amazing to see! We all have a guilty pot somewhere in the garden. This one however was not mine to confess!
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Yes, that’s me too. I have to own up to several offences I’m afraid.
But our predecessor took things one stage further. At the bottom of the lawn we used to have a line of rhododendron bushes until I chopped them down to the ground on a mission to get more light into the garden. And what did I find? Each one of them had been planted in a pot. Not a big pot either.. the original nursery pot. I’m assuming ‘your’ tree, like ours, has bust through the bottom by now.
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How funny, they must have gone to the same horticultural school as this person. This tree is just wearing a plastic necklace now!
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I’ve seen various things growing into the bark of a tree that were originally there as part of a staking process but must admit I’ve never seen this. Quite a catch you got there. 🙂
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Actually it is credit to the life force of the tree, so very strong.
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Are you serious?! Never seen something like this.
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Amazing isn’t it! Made me laugh, but should probably have made me cry!
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🙂
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Hindu Kush? Tea Houses? What wonderful excuses for something we have all been guilty of. Sheer idleness is the reason I have a huge wisteria scrambling through a holly although still in its pot. Mind you, this is the most extreme example I have ever seen. This one needs the Hindu Kush excuse.
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Perhaps they went and didn’t return!
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Guilty…but not on this scale…what is the tree ? Was it worth keeping in the first place….
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Some kind of dull old conifer, we are chopping it down!
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Are you sure there wasn’t some trick photography involved here? I’ve kept trees in pots for years and I’ve never seen anything like this!
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Mrs D! How could you doubt me? By the way, I have just harvested some giant agapanthus seed, would you like some?
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Yes! By the way, the seed you sent before did germinate and it’s come back after one winter. Although the seedlings are still small, I have high hopes. 🙂
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That is good news, I will dry these out a little and then send you some. The parent plant is very tall, flowers at my head height!
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Not once have I done this.
More like 3 or 4 times. The walnut seedling that’s now 10 feet tall is the best/worst! Oops!
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I am not sure that is technically a “seedling” anymore!
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But at the time it was put behind the greenhouse it was!
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