Moving potted plants around

My girlfriend has a back yard with lots of plants in pots and she has always enjoyed moving them around every few weeks or so, but, I'm beginning to wonder if this might be a bad idea as the plants environment is always changing as the amount of sun obviously changes when the yard is fairly small with fences and walls all around casting shade.

Bad idea or no problem?

 

This is of interest to me. My wife keeps turning the planters when the flowers face the sun. I keep telling her she will confuse them. In nature that cannot happen!

 

Interesting to me too, as most of my experience is with plants in the ground. I just read up as much as I can about the plants and try to move them into the optimum spot in terms of sun exposure, really.

@Jocko I'm like your wife and enjoy confusing my plants occasionally (), but I've always assumed that the small amount of energy required to compensate for phototropism isn't enough to have any sort of detrimental effect on the plant. Fascinated to see what more experienced and knowledgeable container gardeners here think about that particular topic!

Nick

 

Plants grow towards light so in an artificial setting, such as in a walled garden or on a windowsill, it makes total sense to turn the plants around if the desired outcome is a symmetrical, bushy plant.

If a plant is allowed to just grow towards the light the end result may be a wonky one, which may look quite nice and have some character.

I don't believe plants get confused, in the nature a fallen branch may cast a profound shade for years or a gale may expose new light on undergrowth.

 

My garden isn't huge but it isn't small either, and I have lots of potted plants dotted about the place and on a patio.
I often move them to different positions because I get fed up with seeing them in the same place all the time. The plants don't seem to mind, they just grow as normal.

(I'm the same in the house - keep moving the furniture around and used to confuse my late partner, who often asked if she was in the right house )

 

Thanks for the replies. So it doesn't seem to be a problem as plenty of people do it.

I was trying to work out why some plants weren't doing so well and moving them did occur to me, but it looks like I should be looking at something else.

 

Some plants prefer a bit of shade so it depends where you move them to. When I move shade-loving plants I move them to another bit of shade.

Another problem is often with overwatering/too soggy compost if it's a plant that likes free drainage. Maybe you could check the conditions the particular plants need. Carefully tipping it out of the pot may reveal the problem at the roots.

 

Funnily enough I only more one's that are growing in open positions.

Some I have backed up against walls or hedges.

I tend to not move those ones as they kind of grow to fit the space they have and if I keep moving them that never happens or they look odd when moved to another place.

Most of the time it's more about fitting the plants to a position that they like ie. Full sun ,shade etc.

 

Gardening on a balcony brings that sort of thing to the fore! As the only light comes from the front (mostly) my plants are always bending towards the light. I don't very often turn my plants around - only a few that perhaps I notice are more inclined than the others.

I've grown my own standard Fuchsias over the years we've lived here & they do need to be turned every few weeks to get a more balanced head.

In our living room we used to have a Dragon tree (till our daughter gave her mum a couple of budgies as a Christmas/retiring present & they pecked the branches so far back I nearly lost the tree & had to move it to the 2nd bedroom) it was in a small window in the living room & as it grew quite quickly I used to turn it around once or twice a year. As a result the branches became very twisted over the years. This is a rather extreme case of what we are talking about but it does show the effect that moving or not moving a plant can have on it!
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All these show just how extreme they can be but at the same they add another dimension & become a talking point!