Overwintering Potted Perennials

[Pompeii]

Overwintering Potted Perennials

Cheryl J. Shenkle

Nov 1, 2021

 

There will be a frost tonight!  These are Words of Doom from the news anchor’s mouth to your ears.  Many times in the past, my husband, who watches the news zealously, will remind me at bedtime that he heard it on the news.  My stomach hits my shoes, I want to go to bed, but I don my coat, make a last minute dash outside to grab whatever is most precious to salvage and start lugging till I’m too tired to continue. 

If you haven’t already guessed, I grow a LOT of plants every year.  I’m not even a firm believer that “he/she who dies with the most plants wins”, I simply can’t resist getting the chance to nurture them for whatever reason.   If I were a normal gardener, then the surplus would put me off of gardening permanently.  However, the sheer amount of responsibility involved forces me to be creative and learn much more.

This year, I started overwintering prep in the spring by placing tender perennials in a specific area in my deck garden.  I planted some together in longer planting boxes meant to fit specific locations in my house.  The ones that come indoors are in sturdier, more attractive pots which makes more sense because the pots need more protection also.  Containerized plants intended to go into the gardens in the fall were set in an area of their own, ready to move, which also made watering easier.  Since I grow a lot more perennials than I keep for myself, my husband renovated a large wooden shelving unit specifically for those plants so they didn’t need sorted out when I needed to find them to give away. 

Finding cold space in my basement was always a problem.  Then I realized that one area of my partially finished basement, near the back door which is rarely used, was an ideal unheated location to wall off and insulate to use as a very “cold” room that doesn’t freeze.  Part of it was turned into a large closet in which I store all kinds of excess paint, cleaning items, stored small hardware, my earthworm bin and mixed paraphernalia used one or twice a year.  The wide hallway created left room for shelving on both sides on which to set overwintered plants in aluminum roaster pans.  Yea!  I could put plants there that need to be kept cold and away from too much light. A wireless thermometer made it easy to keep track of the temperature. Huge plants such as the Mandeville could set on the concrete floor and go dormant while those needing slightly warmer temps and brighter light could reside on the upper shelves. 

Winter flowering plants had been planted together into rectangular planters meant to fit into my large sunny front window.  Finally, I have a way to deal with the Amaryllis ladies that doesn’t involve forcing.  The bulbs get huge, healthy and well chilled outdoors, then come inside to get warm, fed, and they bloom when they wish.  By sharing a wide summer pot, the same fertilizer and pH requirements, Queen’s Tears and Hawaiian Firecracker can bloom in January. Plastic shoeboxes of small perennials share the window ledges of my basement windows getting an inch of water as needed.  Easy!

Geraniums are pulled up by the roots and dropped into paper grocery bags for the Cold Room.. In spring when I see green, they get potted and fertilized for my husband’s red-white-blue flagpole garden. 

Schlumbergera /Zygocactus, alias “Christmas cactus” are placed under grow lights to wait out the darkness of winter after they bloom.

Bulbs and tubers such as Canna, Calla, Water Lily and Dahlia are destined for the Cold Room along with all my seeds. Potatoes, onions and garlic rub elbows with flowering Perennial cousins.  I can heel-in pots of small shrubs and trees for spring in totes of sawdust right outside of the Cold Room door which is under a deck. In intense cold, I can temporarily bring them inside to a cold, yet not freezing, area. 

Involved yes, but if you are a plant nut and the itch doesn’t abate in winter, planning ahead will allow you to easily overwinter your abundance. Best of all, I can now practice my wish to successfully grow nut trees such as Hickory from which varmints will happily eat the essential germinated nut for the entire first year if not protected, and also the sweet American treat, the Paw Paw which starts in shade but needs mostly sun a few years later.

All it took was some planning and utilization of a relatively unused portion of the downstairs living room.  Now I can go easily into the gloom of this coming winter nurturing life for spring 2022.

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