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Winter Care Gunnera?
biofreak
Posts: 1,089
Do I have to give any particular Winter care to my new Gunnera situated in semi shade in the (very deep) Bog Garden?
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Hi BF. They don't like frost so cover the crown with one or two of its big, old leaves and then pour a generous wheelbarrow of garden compost over it. It will grow thru again when ready in spring.
This worked fine for me for two gunneras for several years of much colder winters than you will get until the years when an unexpected and early frost got them in the first week of October. My 3rd attempt stayed in a pot and was brought in over winter to an unheated but bubble wrapped greenhouse and then potted on in spring.
It has come with me to this garden and will now have to be broken out of its latest pot. It will be planted out on the edge of the pond here once chappy has been with his bulldozer thingy to hoik out all the bullrush and brambles. Given the 16 month drought here my main worry is going to be water, not frosts but I plan to water it all thru the growing season next year till it gets its roots down.
Hi bio, i'm in norfolk and my potted gunnera went through last winter with no protection and i repotted in spring. I'll be movng it to a sheltered position in the garden and look out for frost forecasts and throw something over it for a that period ? I love my gunnera, has thrived in a pot with lots of watering and a slow release fertiliser
One of mine is actually in the water at the edge of the lake, the other is beside a small pond, I don't really do anything with them ( Devon ) Both are thriving.
It depends on where you are Hosta. My two were wiped out by -8C before they had gone completely dormant. Not good. This 3rd - and last - attempt, spent winter outside in its pot against a southern facing wall and coped with a -6C in January and all I'd done was protect it from northerly and easterly winds and cover its crown with the old leaves. Being dry helped I'm sure rather than in cold wet ground.
O live in Central Scotland so a lot colder and for longer up here. Round about now I cut the leaves and fruit off the gunnera and put a couple of the leaves back over the crown. That is all the protection it gets. It has even come through the really bad winter we had a couple of years ago when the snow came at the end of November and stayed until the end of January. We breed them tough up here!
Obs says " It depends on where you are Hosta."
Indeed so. One of mine was brought from my last garden in Hants where it regularly went down to about -10 each winter, but sandy soil. Here we've had -7 in the polytunnel, so colder outside.
I'm sure they're just a wee bit fickle and just like to tease us eh?
Having said that now the blinking thing will probably die on me this winter! It is Gennera tinctoria that I have if that makes a difference.
Thanks for info -We have Jersey weather here in Normandy so I hope that it will be OK. It's only a youngster with only 2 big leaves -Can I fleece it?
Mine is in the pond, so cant cover it with compost, its in a pot, so in cold frame then.