Re: question about wintering over
- To: perennials@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: question about wintering over
- From: M*@aol.com
- Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 02:42:24 EDT
Since you are south of me and grow in a milder winter climate your need for
cover is not as great.
In winter the temps get down to-35 every year here and we have mini thaws in
the winter too.
I have come to believe that most of the plants that die do so for me in the
spring or fall and not in the winter from the cold.
In March it might be 35 degrees in the day and 10 degrees 12 hours later,
this is not good for most plants.
Since I do not have the space for "plunge beds" I have to raise every thing
in one gallon pots or 5-1/4 inch pots on the ground. What has worked well so
far is a covering of straw and a sheet of plastic and then a layer of used
carpet.
The straw is put down AFTER the pots have frozen and the carpet keeps the
plants from warming up to soon in the spring and it keeps the plastic down in
the winter so that the post do not "over heat" in the day and instantly
freeze when the sun sets at night.
With the plastic covering you do have to bait against voles, other wise they
will eat many diffrent types of plants, they love grasses and ASTILBE.
I have over wintered many plants in 1" cell packs with no problems but large
pots like those in three to five gallon pots are a little harder.
A few side notes-peatmoss makes a great mulch around pots-weeds will not grow
in it and it has very good insulation carteriscics and it is moister
retentive.
For those plants that need to be dry- you can use perlit as a mulch around
the pots and over the tops, works well for those bulbs that hate wet feet.
once the perlit is put down cover so that excess moister does not collect
around the bottom of the pots and to keep the perlit down and dry.
if you have some plants that you worry about over wintering in the pots you
can make a trench in good draining soil in the ground and take them out of
the pots and heal them in in the fall and pop them back in the pots in the
spring. I also have had good results just bury the pots, but I usually just
do this with small plugs, you have to be sure to uncover them in the spring
before to much new growth begins.
I still have a flat of 36 Coreopsis tripteris in the ground from last
fall-one of these days I will get to it!
The ground is the best place for a plant-it moderates temp and moister
conditions.
But if you are like me-you do not have time in the spring to pot up a plant
for the second or third time.
Paul
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