Cotinus cogg

I bought a Cotinus cogg as I love the wine purple foliage. However on getting it home and looking at it more closely it grows to 8 feet I had thought to grow this in a pot. I know it wont grow as big but would a pot be okay. I dont have room in my garden for an 8 foot shrub.

Many thanks for any help,.

As I have probably said on this site a hundred times or more, you can grow anything in a pot if you are willing to supply all its needs 52 weeks a year.  I grow trees, shrubs, bulbs, hostas and many, many other things in pots - over 400 of them, but it does take alot of work.  This is not a complaint, it is after all a self inflicted injury.

Yes you can grow cotinus in a pot, if the pot is big enough.  Start with as small  a pot as needed,  depending upon the size of the tree you buy or get given, and move it up to bigger ones each early spring until it has got as big as you want it to.  You will need to prune the shrub annually, and feed it regularly.  The red one does better in a pot as it is naturally slightly less vigorous than the green one, but both are possible. As with anything in a pot you must do everything for the plant that it would do for itself in the open ground, weeding is essential, feeding and watering (though not this year much!), drainage and general care.  Enjoy, growing things in pots can become an obsession, but really is a great way of having things wherever you want in the garden without having to depend on soil alone. 

Hi, thank you very much for your reply, my apologies for asking yet another question that you have replied to a hundred times or more but I only joined the site this morning so didnt know

I have a lot of pots in my smallish garden that do very well indeed, to miniature rose, 5 rhodies, 3 acers, astillibe, many hostas, etc.  I do look after them as best I can, with feeding, watering and weeding and though my garden faces north east they all seem to do very well.

Again, thank you for your answer, I have a pot in mind but do feel, do you not agree, that in a pot, they cant grow as hugely as they would in the ground where there is bound to be more space,. Having said that a friend of mine has two hostas which are the biggest I have ever seen,. My biggest hosta and I have had it very many years is only half the size !!

Thank you.  Julieh2

My dear fellow gardener Julieh2, I did not mean that I objected to answering a question a hundred times, only that some people don't quite believe you can grow anything in a pot, and as I am a passionate believer in it, I keep banging the drum about it.  I would be saddened if  you thought I was being harsh to you, that never, ever, entered my mind - and if it happened I sincerely aopolgise. 

You are quite right that potted plants do not reach their full potential for growth in a pot,  however big that might be, though some certainly try!  If you leave a pot with a potential tree in one place for a long while, the roots will find their way out into the ground below, unless you use sauscers or plates inderneath, I never do that so several of my trees are probably rooted far away from where I think they are!  There is an acer that canot possibly be growing only in the pot is has been in for the last 15 years, but that's OK, I don't intend to try and move it anyway.  The other thing is that it often means you can grow something that if it did grow to full size would be too much for your garden, but in a pot is more manageable - we have a 12 foot oak tree in a huge pot, I know it will never each the size of a woodland oak, but we love it as it is - so do the birds.

please keep asking questions of everyone as much as you like, we all learn something from eah other, and we all had to start somewhere- most of all, enjoy your garening. 

Don't forget with hostas, that their natural growth as far as size is concerned, is very variable. I have some that are 2 inches high, and some that are several feet high and across - yours just may be a smaller typpe than that of your friend?  Hostas are very satisfactory plants to grow in pots as you can keep the dreaded slugs off with copper tape around each pot, which reduces thae amount of damage those horrid pests do to them otherwise.  

Please do keep asking questions, as much as you like, we all learn something new from these posts, and we all had to start somehwere, and were/are very glad of tips and help. Most of all, enjoy your gardening, 'tis the best thing ever!

Hi thank you again for your reply, I do try and grow many things in pots, not as much as you, but if I cant find space in my garden, and I am running out, I just pot it. I always say I wont buy anything else, but cant help myself. I NEVER can go to a garden centre without buying something!!

I call myself an amateur-amateur gardener, but am always willing to learn and enjoy just pottering about.

I am very lucky as my sister is a really good gardener and she comes round every so often and checks things out with advice and a pair of secauteurs, she is lethal, but it works!

My friend is going to divide her hostas, early spring I imagine and I am to get a cutting. We shall see then how mine grows compared to hers.

A question though, even with tape something eats my hostas, is it slugs. My sis says they will go to any lengths for food, even to climbing onto something above a hosta and dropping down.  Is this true and is there anything else I can do for them.

Just off to Blenheim now to see the Olympic torch later today. I do thank you very much for your time.l I dont normally have time in the day but have two weeks leave, I get out in the garden between showers but it is all getting a bit soggy now!

Many thanks.  Julieh2

Yes, slugs are very good climbers, and will do anything to get at your plants, especially hostas which must be like caviar to them!  Long leaves that touch the ground they will climb, walls near the pots they will climb and drop into the pot, I have found them 5 foot up a wall on the way to a hanging basket!  Tape does help as you know, careful siting so less places for them to drop from - you will always I think get some damage but whatever you can do to reduce it is a good thing.  Some people swear by coffee grounds on the top of the pot, where I use sharp grite - not tried it myslef but have often seen it recommended.  Not sure if I want the garden to smell of coffee.