Plants Surviving Winter
oliverjameswarburton
Posts: 2
Hi there,
Basically I was planing to have a house built and completed a year ago so I started preparing plants for the new garden, which will be a lot larger then my current one.
Alas as one would expect now, the council decimated the timetable with red tape even though nothing about the plans actualy changed and its only been started in late November - completion date in March/April
The Problem: I have been growing new plants for the garden all year praying I could get them under cover before winter, which has now arrived with a -3 overnight temperature last night and light snow fall.
Currently I have about 180 plants in 6 inch pots standing up to a foot tall and a further 100 in seed pots that are about 1 inch tall.
I have a poly tunnel which I have in turn built a cold frame inside to house the seedling plants as I didn't think the soil volume could survive any level of frost.
I had the larger ones in there as well but because its a 3x6m tunnel it was very cramped and yesterday I went in and a lot of the plants had grey mildew on them and where rotting.
I'm not an experienced gardener but when the plant is rotting an alarm bell was ringing that the ventilation was not sufficient.
So I moved all the larger plants into a netted enclosure next to the poly tunnel, wrapped the wall in bubble wrap and but a large roll of hanging basket liner across the top and draped flees over the plants to try and protect it from the harder frosts.
I went out this morning and outside the tunnel is about 3cm of frozen soil, the protected plants have about 5mm.
Was this a good tactical decision or would they have been safer getting mildew then becoming ice cubes.
The plants are Hardy / Half-Hardy mix that have been getting reduced water for the last 6 weeks to force them to hibernate.
Alternatively, any other suggestions for saving them? I'm in the highlands of Scotland so the temp can drop to -10 without much trouble.
Posts
If they are hardy, plunge the pots into a bed of compost or peat or bark. That can be outside. So long as the roots are protected and do not freeze , they should be OK. Half hardy plants that have rotted , you are likely to lose. remove any decaying parts, and open up the tunnel in milder weather to get an air flow.
What are the plants?
We will be able to give much better targeted advice if we know what we are dealing with. Are these hardy plants shrubs or herbaceaous perennial, or evergreen ones? Your half hardies will always need winter protection where you live, even if they are perennial. If they are annuals you would be better waiting till warmer temps in spring and starting afresh, you will end up with stronger plants.
Hi Oliver, being a nosey Nellie, I peeked at your profile to see if you'd listed your location. You state in your previous post that the new house is in the Scottish Highlands. Is this where you are overwintering the plants?
I'm not that far north but lots of forum members are.
Agree with buttercup that info about the type of plants will help you get the advice you need to help them survive.