Sigh. Every April I plant pansies in a whiskey barrel in front of my house. After the spring bulbs (I have mostly daffodils because the rabbits eat the tulips), pansies are my first pop of color and always make me smile. After I plant them, I feel as if summer is truly on the way. It's a good feeling.
But as summer moves along, the pansies become leggy and begin to die back with the warmer weather. They're definitely a cool weather flower. At that point I should pull them out and plant something else, but it's so difficult to pull out the few remaining flowers. It feels wrong. The solution, of course, would be to transfer those to a pot and move on with new flowers in the barrel. Ideally, that's what should happen.
Instead, this year I took care of my other plants and ignored the dying pansies until it was so late that they were mostly dead, the whiskey barrel was mostly bare dirt, and I couldn't find good substitutes at the garden center (I usually sub in vincas). Rather, I could find some zinnias, but they were too pricey, considering that summer is already waning a bit. So, I found a pot of marigolds on sale, brought them home and removed the whole bunch from the pot.
Once out of the pot, I found that the bottom was a mass of intertwined delicate roots. Ugh! Carefully, I split the mass of flowers open, pulled them apart in chunks and replanted them in the barrel. I was nervous because of all the roots that ripped or even fell away.
In the end, it worked...sort of. They don't completely fill the barrel, but the original pot was only ten dollars and I didn't want to go back for another one. This will do for the rest of the summer, and despite the torn roots, they're surviving. I'll chalk this up as a partial win, and next year I'll make the switch earlier.
Have a great day!
Myrna
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