Saving plants from the winter chill
Don’t wait until the first frosts arrive before you give your tender plants some protection. Hannah Stephenson offers a guide to overwintering your favourites for their best chance of success in the future
I looked out on my patio a few days ago to see a pelargonium I planted back in May coming into flower yet again, at a time when most of my summer pots have been emptied.
Despite a lot of rain, it’s been a mild October, and this may lull many of us into a false sense of security about how long we leave it before offering our plants some protection from the winter chill.
As I live in a frost pocket, the pelargonium is going to come under cover soon. If you have pots of pelargoniums (bedding geraniums) which you want to enjoy next year, put them inside too, in a light, frost-free place such as a slightly heated greenhouse, a sheltered porch next to the house or an unheated spare room or conservatory, cutting them back to 10cm (4in). Don’t expose them to warm central heating or they’ll just wilt when you put them out next year.
Fuchsias, which lose their leaves entirely and spend winter looking like bare sticks, will need the same treatment. You’ll hardly need to water them at all until growth resumes in spring, at which point you can repot them into John Innes No 2 potting compost and harden them off before placing them outside when the risk of frost has passed.
Marguerites (Argyranthemums) will also not stand any frost and are best dug up and potted, cut back by half and kept in a dry, cool, frost-free place that has sunlight through the winter, like a cool greenhouse. Water them sparingly to keep their roots dry until spring, when you can start to water them more frequently.
If your garden has a Mediterranean theme, you’re likely to need to protect other vulnerable plants, such as cannas, olive trees, ginger lilies and dahlias, which may not survive winter frosts.
Leave dahlia tubers in the ground until the foliage has been blackened by frost, which may be as late as November, then cut the plants down to around 15cm (6in) from the ground and dig up the tubers. Shake off the soil, wash the tubers and turn them upside down so the moisture drains out of the hollow stems. When they’ve dried off, hang them in nets in a shed or store them in stacking trays with plenty of holes for ventilation.
Cannas need to be cut down before winter and mulched heavily, or dug up and put into pots only slightly bigger than their ball of roots, filling the gaps with compost, and kept in a frost-free place, ideally under the staging in a greenhouse
If you don’t have heating in your greenhouse, insulating your more tender plants with bubble wrap can make a huge difference, especially if you buy the fixing clips which separate the glass from the bubble wrap, creating a thin pocket of insulating air between the glass and the wrap. Alternatively, you may have to venture out on really cold nights and cover your tender specimens with horticultural fleece to keep the winter chill at bay.
Other plants that form tubers such as ginger lilies are best dug up at the end of the season, the top growth cut off with secateurs and then the tubers stored until spring in dry potting compost in a cool, frost-free place like a garage or shed. They can be planted out next year when all danger of frost has passed.
Pots of tender exotics such as citrus, palms and oleander which have graced your patio in summer will need to be moved back under cover, either into a cool conservatory or frost-free greenhouse, and will need to be watered sparingly throughout the winter. If your tender plants are simply too big to move, then wrapping them in hessian or horticultural fleece may be the answer.
Other tender plants such as cordylines, Pittosporum tobira and cestrum, callistemon and Clerodendrum bungei may need wrapping, by framing the plant with a wigwam of bamboo canes and then packing the base of the plant with straw and wrapping the cane frame with horticultural fleece.
Banana plants can either be heavily mulched to protect the roots, so growth starts again from soil level in the spring, or the top leaves cut off and the whole plant stem wrapped in straw, secured with chicken wire or hessian, so the plant can still breathe.
Hopefully, a bit of TLC over the winter months will ensure that your plants are brought back to their full glory next summer.
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