Re: Shrub question/overwintering

I don't know about a compost pile...no experience, but seems to me a
pile of wood chips or mulch or even leaves might be better for some
reason.  One thing you can do to help with the wind problem is erect
a burlap fence around your group of pots - simple wood tomato stakes
with burlap stapled on work well. You can buy burlap by the roll for
this purpose.  Helps break the wind and protect the plants while
still permitting air flow.

Have in the past made "temporary" plunge beds by taking 8" wide
boards and propping them up with concrete blocks and filling the
resulting oblong with bagged mulch or sand and burying the pots to
their rims. (Some of those have been "temporary" for around 10 years
now)  Works fine except that you have to get those pots out before
growth resumes or roots zoom into the plunge bed material and you
have a devil of a time getting the pots out (experience, here).  Not
only that, but if you are really dilatory, any with tap type roots
will make straight for the soil under the plunge beds (weed block or
no) and have a ball - then, getting the plants out without lethal
damage is a lot of fun.

Only problem I ever had with wintering pots in these open plunge beds
was the year we had several ice storms with partial thaw in between -
enough thaw to melt the ice in the pot, but not enough to let me get
the pots out to dump the water - they were frozen in tight.  I can
testify that lavender does *not* like ice water sitting around its
crown and will show displeasure by dying quickly.  My solution to
this is paying attention to the weather reports and if ice is
forecast, whipping out with some black plastic and old comforters in
hand and covering the plunge bed.  I wouldn't use clear plastic
because it heats up really fast and I use the comforters to cover the
plastic to avoid heat build up.  Have covered my cold frame with
black plastic, old rugs and plywood in winter with no detriment to
pots inside - they don't seem to mind being in the dark...  You'd
think they'd etiolate, but when the frame is uncovered in early
spring, they are all fresh as a daisy and seem quite happy.  Never
understood this - and this for plants with foliage, not just dormant
stems.... Note tho' that this frame is excavated - probably about 30"
deep, concrete block sides and sand filled, which may make a
difference....don't know what would happen with an above ground
frame.

Did two articles on overwintering plants in pots a year ago, with
other methods I've tried - might be of interest to
you...http://suite101.com/article.cfm/222/12377  takes you to the
first one.

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor:  Gardening in Shade
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----------
> From: Nancy Stedman <stedman@INTERPORT.NET>
> Date: Monday, December 20, 1999 8:55 AM
>
> Thanks all for the answers to this question. I now think that the
Japanese
> maple (I believe it's the common A. palmatum 'atropurpureum') is
probably
> just a slow grower. I've never overwintered anything in pots--I've
put
> plants in the soil for fall and then dug them up and repotted them
the next
> spring--but I'm really running out of space and think I will have
to keep
> some things in containers next winter. I don't have a cold frame or
a porch
> but I was thinking next winter of keeping some containers (wrapped
in bubble
> wrap) in a compost pile next to my house. Is there any risk with
that? I am
> mainly interested in putting large ferns in pots, although I'd like
to try
> small shade-tolerant evergreen shrubs like skimmia if there are
some that
> are really hardy. It is very windy here in the winter, and there's
almost
> nowhere in my tiny plot that doesn't get blown.
> Thanks,
> Nancy S. (NYC, zone 6B)
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