Here in Brooklyn I can get Miracle-Gro potting soil or Hyponex at a local National Wholesale Liquidator. As of last week, Home Depot only had MG garden soil & Lowes had nothing in stock. I was thinking of mixing my own batch and have been reading recipes online that recommend adding perlite or peat moss and compost to regular garden soil. I can't find compost, perlite or peat moss locally.

I'm not sure how to proceed. I might ask Witherspoon to delay shipment a bit just to give me a chance to find potting soil, but eventually will have to come up with something.

I did find great plastic containers at Lowes with 8 small holes that have to be punched out (about 1/8"). Is that size big enough for the water to drain? I'm afraid that drilling larger holes will crack the plastic.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

I use MiracleGro Organic Choice Potting Mix.

What is the diameter of the pots? 1/8" doesn't sound like a large hole to me, I prefer 1/2" - 3/4".

Diane, the diameter of the container I bought is 17" at the top & 10" at the base, and about 16" high. So if 8 little holes aren't sufficient, is it safe to drill a plastic pot?

I've worked in the Lawn & Garden Dept at one of the largest Ace Hardware stores in Northern CA for almost 24yrs. We used to carry Hyponex products but over the yrs we've gotten all sorts of other brands, including Miracle-Gro. I only use our own brand of Ace Potting Soil. Every Ace gets their soil products from different suppliers by region, so not all will be exactly the same. Ours come from a place called Redi-Gro in Sacramento. Their potting soil is composted organic "forest products" with peat moss and a little bit of perlite, and maybe some lime or something like that. It works really well for me.

I never use Miracle-Gro soils because I don't like using fertilizer when I first plant the roses. Also, DO NOT use any of the soils that contain water-holding agents. Miracle-Gro Moisture Control is one we carry that I would never use! It sounds good having the time-release water-holding granules mixed in there, but after a time, they settle to the bottom of the pots and hold a lot of water in the bottom, and tend to rot. That may be what others were referring to in the Hyponex soils. They might've added the water-holding granules to some of their soils. If you've never seen the stuff, it's really weird. The granules are tiny little white specks. When you put them in a cup of water, they absorb the water and can grow to hundreds of times their size. One of the guys at work placed a teaspoon in a 16oz plastic drinking cup and kept adding water. The granules grew to these transparent gelatinous chunks well over 1/4" a piece and were practically spilling out the top of the cup. If he'd have put them in a bigger cup, and added more water, they would've kept growing. You figure they probably put several teaspoons of this stuff in a big bag of soil and that can become a big blob of goo.