Better Potting Skills For All Needs

Better potting skills for all needs

- Anne Swithinbank

Q I am new to gardening, but last year collected a few indoor and outdoor plants that are still in their pots. I feel some need a bigger container but I’m confused when I read the terms ‘pot up’, ‘pot off’, ‘repot’ and ‘pot on’. What do they all mean, and how do you do it? Ren Boswell, Canterbury, Kent

A Gardening terms like these have been handed down since Victorian times. While they are useful, I wouldn’t get too hung up on them.

To pot up – or even pot off – usually refers to plants going into their own pot for the first time. This could apply to a group of rooted cuttings separated and potted singly, or seedlings established in plugs or trays. Potting up can also apply to divisions of plants like crowns of strelitzia or agapanthus, and also to plants being that are lifted and potted from the garden, perhaps for winter protection.