I posted a picture of the "Water logged" semps in my cast iron planter

The thread "Planting in Cast Iron" in All Things Gardening forum

I said
It is 3 days past the storm and they seem to be doing OK. I have received advise to repot them ASAP. And I was about to do so, but they looked pretty good today.

Would anyone have suggestions on how to drain a cast iron planter without putting a hole in it?

Gosh , wanted to read all this thread but just cannot get past "just throwing away extra Semps." 1st, I cannot imagine ever having enough let alone extra or to many. My motto will be " Letum grow, letum grow". Wish you could have seen me showing mine to a stranger this morning and telling her to come back in about a month and I'll get her started (I really thought hooked) with the beauties. Lynn those you sent me last Summer and Fall are really showing themselves (I show them every chance I get) with color and growth...gosh I love the babies they are showing now. I still love everyone I've ever seen.

Mother's Day Gift

Now I'm going back to finish this thread.

I love that pot!!!!

I am going to try to salvage what I can and not throw any away unless they rot and die.

Pretty hectic weekend so far.

Oh Chris, love your plantings, every one of them...so glad you didn't throw them away.

Thank you Faye. I have a hard time parting with them too. I love your cool planter!!!

How is your husband doing?

This was from earlier this spring and I just wrote an article for ATP about the process.

So beautiful, Chris! and wonderful article!!!

Thanks Janice!!

Nice Chris! I'll have to read the article.

Marylin, To drain something that you cannot tip over or put a hole in, try using a cloth siphon or cloth wick or strip. Use something absorbent like cotton, wet the whole thing and insert the end into the soil of the container. The other end must be lower than the level you want to drain. Takes a while and you may have to play with thickness, length, etc. to get it working effectively. You should see water dripping from the lower end of the strip once it is going OK.

Other than that, one other approach is just to soak up excess water with towels, ring them out, then repeat until most of the water is gone. A permanent wick is a permanent solution, if you can find a way to route one into the container and assure it gets completely wet when drainage is needed.

Twitcher, Thanks for that advice. I did use a dry rag. But am going to go get a couple of lamp wicks to keep on hand.

Did you say the wick should be wet before it is put in?

Car sponge would work.

Yes, you will be using gravity to lower the water level. The lower end of the siphon must be below the water level and level of the upper level of the siphon. While this is normally done with tubes, it can work with cloth as well, albeit not as effectively. However, if the entire cloth/wick is not wet, then the "water" level of the end, e.g. the dry area will not be below the upper end and it will not work. With a tube, the mechanism is gravity, with a cloth, its capillary action (wetting) and gravity.

It works differently if the wick is thru the bottom of the container, but you need it to be wet if the wick goes upward and over the edge, then down. Note that the wick may wet itself thru its entire length if the material is absorbent and humidity is high (to limit evaporation), but this is not always assured. It can be tricky, however, to get this to work.

I would regard this as a long term, slow functioning mechanism. If your plants are under water, use a sponge or towel to get most of it.

You could also use air tubing sold for aquarium air pumps to siphon the water out. It's inexpensive and a "set it and forget it" way of draining a large container that you cannot move. Fill the tube with water, insert below the water level of the container (into the soil) and put the other end below the height of the container. As long as there are no air bubbles in the tubing, it will siphon water from the container, even if some dirt gets into the tube - it will just slow it down. You would need to refill the tubing with water the next time you need to drain.

I have no issue with tossing extras of very vigorous semps that are about to "eat" their less vigorous semp neighbors. I think of it as pruning. Given time, I think we'll all get there eventually.
I tossed a bunch of More Honey under my front fence and they're looking pretty good there.

The waterlogged container as it is today... Looks pretty good. I am prepared to cover it if rain is imminent.

Tabby, glad to see you posting. I know we are both glad for milder weather, at least in the early part of the day!!!!

Your front fence area may become the showplace of the yard

Hey Sis, those semps are looking wonderful. What a great plant mommy you are.

Great advice you give in above post twit.

Wish all of you could see Tabby's place I could have stayed there all day when I visited her yard for the first time. Treasures around every corner.

What I did this weekend - and the last 3 weekends .... topdressed my 21 4' x 8' and 3 4' x 12 & 15' beds mostly-semp beds (some alpines & sedums) with composted manure. Trying to change the ph as the gravel I've been using seems to've been infested with moss spores.

The worst part of the project was the necessity to unplant so many of the semps, pick the moss away from each one, then replant. Scraping the top layer of moss off the unplanted portions of the beds was easy by comparison.

Took 30+ 40 lb. bags of compost to complete and I am knackered!!

Wow Kate, that was some work out. Would love to see the finished product.

Kate, I've been meaning to ask you for some time now. We did a trade several years ago and you included nice plastic labels for all you sent. The plastic labels did last a long time, but are starting to get brittle and break. What is most important, is that the writing on the label was some sort of permanent marker that did not fade or deteriorate after all this time. I would like to ask you what marker you use to do that. Everything I try seems to fade in a year or two. What's your secret?