Decorative Potted Shrubs

Uses

• Potted shrubs serve as accent plants or focal points indoors and outdoors. With potted shrubs, you can introduce flowers, form, foliage and fruits to spaces in and around your home. Bring your pots indoors for the season or keep them indoors year-round. You can easily move most potted shrubs, arranging them to better suit your patio or other outdoor areas.

Benefits

• Raising your shrubs in pots allows you to keep shrubs that wouldn’t adapt well to your local environment. You can adapt the soil in each container to best fit the needs of the plants and provide the soil type, drainage, temperature, humidity and light levels needed for each plant. You also can move potted shrubs easily -- if they need more sun, for example. By using potting media, you eliminate many potential disease problems, and shrubs grown in containers do not have to compete with weeds.

Considerations

• Potted shrubs require more maintenance than other shrubs. Plants grown in containers dry out faster than those planted in the ground, and some types of containers increase the speed of water loss. You may need to prune more often to keep the shrubs appropriately sized and proportioned, to shape or to encourage new growth, particularly if your shrub flowers on new growth. If you bring your shrubs indoors, you must provide conditions that match the needs of the plants as closely as possible. While some shrubs are quite hardy, others need extensive care and attention. For example, gardenias need very specifically tailored conditions to fully develop their fragrant flowers.

Concerns

• Potted shrubs require special protection during the winter. Even hardy shrubs may experience root damage, cracked containers and heaving soil in cold weather. Potted shrubs left outdoors must be covered, insulated and protected from wind. Stop feeding your plants after midsummer, as this will help harden off woody shrubs, according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension. Shrubs brought indoors must be allowed a period of acclimatization to adapt to the indoor conditions and recover from the shock of the move.