Twig: Tomatoes and growing roses in pots

Your gardening problems solved. This week: roses, tomatoes, and growing plants on balconies.

Tomatoes and roses in pots

Can I downsize a five-year-old favourite rose in a very large pot to a smaller, patio-compatible pot?

ELIZABETH KIDMAN, TOORMINA, NSW

Roses are best in the ground because of their deep roots but with care will grow in large pots for several years. Patio roses and miniatures, however, are suited to small pots. By now it’s likely your rose’s roots fill the current pot. However, if you think about bare-root roses sold mid-winter, roses survive radical root and shoot pruning when dormant. Wait until June if possible. How long it thrives in the new pot depends on the size of the rose and the pot.

I can’t attach any pots to my unit’s common property. I tried several products that hang from my balcony balustrade but the plants just die. I have full sun each day. Any suggestions?

DENISE HUNTER, SYDNEY

Greenbo pots and window boxes attach to railings without screws, nails or brackets and have inbuilt saucers, making them suitable for you. In full sun you can grow many small plants if you use top quality potting mix and water daily in summer. Try herbs, flowering annuals and small vegetables that you change over frequently, or use small perennials such as geranium “Big Red”, or succulents.

Our balcony faces east but is open to the south and close to the coast, so it’s windy. What plants can we grow?

JACINTA JESSER, SYDNEY

Consider a windbreak at the south end, either a structural screen or a long trough planted with yucca, murraya, portwine magnolia (Michelia figo) or dwarf umbrella tree. Tough plants for shady balconies include rhapis palm, weeping fig, madonna lilies (Spathiphyllum), Zanzibar Gem, Indian hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis) and the climber star jasmine.

No matter what we do, our tomatoes never grow bigger than a golf ball. We’ve tried a garden bed and in a pot.

DONNA LAW, BURPENGARY, Queensland

It could be water stress, temperatures too high or too low, or a matter of timing. Tomatoes are usually planted in spring to fruit through summer into autumn. In warm areas you can grow them all year but fruit take longer to mature and ripen in cool temperatures. Generally tomatoes are better in the ground, but cherry and grape tomatoes will grow in very large pots. These varieties are also more shade tolerant, ripen faster and are resistant to fruit fly because of their tough skins.

FLORA

I had the chance recently to experience the exquisite perfume of a new daphne variety, bred for early and long flowering. A cross between Daphne odora and D. bholua, ‘Perfume Princess’ has the intensely sweet, piercing fragrance of regular daphne but with citrus undertones. The individual flowers are larger than usual and borne in unusually thick clusters along the stems, making them ideal for picking. They open blush pink and fade to white, flowering from mid-winter to late spring, on a bushy plant of 1m high and wide. Daphnes prefer part shade — morning sun is favourable — and demand excellent drainage. ‘Perfume Princess’ will grow well in a pot and tolerates temperatures from minus 15C to 38C. See tesselaar.com for stockists.