(This article was first published in the Valley Voice Magazine)

There are some plants that love growing in the dry. Images of spiky cactus in the desert with a cowboy on a horse spring immediately to mind. The other image is a cliff over looking a pristine New Zealand beach, with  a selection of NZ natives clinging on to the crumbling face whilst being battered by salt laden wind.

These plants are the survivors, the ones adapted to growing in harsh conditions, the ones that will fill niches that no other plant can.

Most of us also have one or two of these existing at our house. Normally found near the front door, on a patio, or around the pool.  These plants are up there with the most resilient plants in the world.

Three weeks of drought each summer when the family goes to the bach don’t phase these plants. A football accidentally kicked in their direction doesn’t worry them. Temperatures reaching 50 degrees around their roots just makes them stronger.  The small amount of impoverished infertile soil they are growing in provides just enough sustenance to keep them alive. The huge ants nest swarming completely surrounding their roots is not a problem. Buffeted by wind, hammered by frost, these plants are the true heros of the plant world.

These plants are the ones you bought a few years back along with a couple of expensive pots to make your house look great. For the first 6 months they looked great, then the first summer hit, you went away, no-one watered them, and by the following autumn, almost unnoticed, your feature on the deck has turned to a stocky yellowed shadow of its former self.

And here lies the challenge to growing plants in pots.  Plants hate growing in pots long term. Pots are one of the harshest environments to grow in if you are a plant. The drainage needs to be right, the space to grow needs to be right, the amount of food needs to be right.

We have a rule in our nursery that plants are not allowed to have birthdays in their pot. If they haven’t sold within a year of being potted up we need to do something with them. Sold, potted into a bigger pot, planted. Whatever it takes to stop the need to have a birthday party.

Plants in pots at home are no different. While it is possible to keep plants looking OK in a pot for more than one year, the best thing you can do for you plants is to remove them from their pot on a yearly basis, and either start completely fresh with a new plant, or remove some soil, roots and foliage from the old one and pot it back into its pot with fresh soil and fertiliser.