Overwintering plants.......

[Maggi Young]

This new thread is begun as a result of messages here:

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=6207.0


That thread asks about winter/ rest-season habits of plants and I bemoaned the lack of information about whether plants are herbaceous or not .........

This business of incomplete info is one of my bugbears!  I have suffered anguish in the past as a plant died back and left me wondering if it had gone forever or was just resting..... and no mention of what it was meant to do, anywhere I could find.... horrible.... and very irritating    

Last week at work at the Radio Scotland phone in programme, I suggested to a panellist, while discussing an email that had been sent in, prior to the programme, that it was a fat l lot of use to tell people how to care for their fuchsias obverwinter, no matter what method you tell them about, if you do not also tell them when to take the plants OUT of whatever place/regime you have them in and when and how to restart growth!  It is almost a given that anyone giving advice for overwintering will NOT tell you these vital facts about restarting into growth.... drives me crazy, and not only because I then have to spend the next while on the phone answering the puzzled listeners calling in to ask!!



Maggiepie (Helen) wrote:
"Maggi, since you have brought up the topic of overwintering fuchsias, maybe you can start a thread on overwintering plants.
I dug up a couple of hydrangeas to overwinter, ( should have left it until spring), have them sitting in bags in the garage and no idea what to do next.
I also have a number of clematis I am going to overwinter so any information would be 'very' helpful."


 So, here is a new topic where we can discuss our favoured methods of over-wintering various plants ......

[JPB]

It surprises me that no one has posted on this topic While it is very interesting!

I grow my Narcissus (elegans, cantabricus, serotinus etc.), Acis (autumnale, nicaensis) and Gladiolus (italicus, illyricus) in my greenhouse at 7C using a heater. Light is from fluorescent lamps at  (9h Light; 15h Dark). This works very well. Plants are slowly growing but in a natural way. I can't expose them to frost outside as they will eventually die. Also keeping them in my living room last year did not work well. Plants were growing too fast and were at the end of their cycle by december. Especially Narcissus didn't like to go into rest that early and some plants rotted away.

This regime works pretty well for my hardy bulbs too: Scilla non-scripta, Ornithogalum (umbelliferum, pyrenaicus), Narcissus (pseud. ssp. pseud.; varduliensis) an Liliums (martagon, washingtonianum) are kept under the bench and kept a little dry. Bulbs sre healthy and show a little (normal) activity. While they are frost resistent, I found that keeping them outside, they suffer from prelonged frost and -even worse!- alternation of slight frost and thaw (better known under the Dutch word "kwakkelweer" )

Hans