I have about 5 small hostas still in pots and really don't want to just stick them in the ground only to have to move them in the spring. Suggestions on the best way to overwinter them? Preferred locations and watering-please be specific-I'm still a gardening newbie! These are fairly small plants in small 4 inch black plastic starter pots. Franknjim please speak up-I saw a post that you overwintered over 300 plants!
Thanks!
kd
Overwintering hostas in pots
I have had good luck burying several in their nursery pots along the north side of my house, right up against the foundation and covered the tops with oak leaves. However, one of those was a little damaged this Spring, and I think the cause was being too wet, as there were some mushy roots when I repotted it. So I've started using a much coarser potting mix to improve drainage. Being too wet seems to be the big concern. The hosta I left out in my hypertufa containers all did not survive because they rotted from bring too wet. If I leave any in containers this year, I may tip them on their sides.
This message was edited Aug 21, 2010 8:09 PM
Last winter I grouped the pots of hostas together on the drive up next to the house, bermed top soil around them, covered with leaves and sprinkled more top soil on top of the leaves to keep them held down. This year I am just putting everything in the unheated garage. No watering. That is what rots them out.
A local hosta retailer digs small trenches in a farm field, places all of her pots in them and covers with leaves.
Frank
I am overwintering my potted hostas right in the ground. I did last year (and they are still in pots waiting for that perfect spot!) and had no losses. I live in sand, so maybe drainage isn't a problem here.
I overwintered some hostas that I didn't have time to plant last year under my big pine trees - they sat there in their pots, not buried or covered with anything. They did get some water (lots of snow last year) - but not as much as they would have if they had been anywhere else. Surprisingly all but one came through OK.
Last year I bought a lot of plants on sale, just couldn't pass them up. Daylilies, hostas, butterfly bush, lilies, iris, a bunch of stuff. I took bags of mulch and made a small fort under a pine tree. Can't find the picture right now, but it was like 3 bags of mulch high all the away around (knew I would use the mulch in the spring), then filled the center of the fort with plants, then covered the tops with loose mulch. I did not lose one plant and we had a long, hard, cold, winter. I also planted the whole pots of daylilies along the west side of the house and had good luck with it. I dug them pot and all in early spring.
I overwinter mine in an unheated garage/shed. Haven't lost any yet that way. I do water them once in a while during the winter so the soil doesn't dry out in them.
Jan in central Illinois
I've had my best luck when I dig a trench and put the pots in at an angle. The angle is so any snow melt will drain off instead of sitting on top of the pot to refreeze and thaw and cause rot. I prefer to do this with the pots facing north, in full shade and then I cover them deep with pine needles. The pine needles seem to be a great insulator.
Last year it got too late to dig my potted hostas in the way I like to, and I opted to store them in a detached, unheated garage and lost several.
(Full disclosure: I wintered over 300 potted hostas and seedllings.)
One last question-I know my zone has alot to do with when-but approx. when do you move and cover them?
Thanks for all the info!!!
WOW -300 hostas!!! Sounds like heaven!!!!
Wow you guys have some notorious winters, I just leave mine where they are. Last year we had the worst winter ever, snowed for three days, but my Hostas came up beautiful.
I have a nursery and do it two ways. The real expensive ones I sink in pots in the ground. The cheaper ones I tip the pots on their sides, and put tarps over them. Bait for rodents, as the mice/ moles/ voles love them. I don't lose any. You need to tip the pots over, though.
Even if you decide to put the up against the house, or something similar, tip them on their side, otherwise they will rot.
For the five of them, I think I would sink the pots.
I do it when I realize it's probably going to be the last day I can get out to them. LOL.
I have to admit that I try to wait as long as I can before sinking them in. There have been years when I waited too long and had to break through the top 1/2 inch of frozen soil to be able to dig the pots in. Just make sure that they have gone dormant.
Any problem with voles eating them in the pots?
Minor and we have a lot of voles here.
I tipped my pots over and put leaves on them the voles dug about 10 out of thirty completely out of the pots found them laying on the ground and had to repot that's when I was getting hosta from you Pam :) A long time ago lol None of them were eaten they all survived we have a lot more voles here now there's no telling what would happen they ate two hosta in the ground this year only had three leaves come back on two full grown hostas!
I always repot my hosta if I'm leaving them in a pot all winter with soil less mix and good compost wouldn't let them sit all winter with out repotting them with fresh dirt I seem to lose more plants if I don't get to repot them with fresh dirt before winter and I wouldn't leave them in 4" pots, just my opinion.
That's why I bait. The mouse poison will get rid of them too.
Amazing what hostas can take. Of course if you paid 50.00 for it, it will be the primary meal.
That is a rule pollyk, the more expensive the plant is in direct relationship on it's odds of dying. Pay 50.00 you have a 50% change it will croak....rofl. 5.00 dollar plant has 5% odds of dying...rofl. Plant a tree odds of dying 75%, volunteer tree in bad spot odds of dying 0...rofl
Ain't that the truth. I just never knew the percentages before, LOL.
Course my odds are probably double that....rofl.
I just bought a japense maple for 50.00 (got it on sale) and I am terrified it won't make it. Thinking about it the entire weekend I spent pulling up 100's regular maple trees that sprout from those helicopters...rofl.
Well, the area is probably right for any kind of maple then. Oak trees are my invaders, but try to transplant a purchased one. I know what you mean.
Have to consider myself lucky not to have violes they sound horrible.
I dont have any Voles, but Lord the snails are terrible! They are everywhere, I see them crawling along the cement in and out the Shells. Do they eat cat food? I find them in the outside cat's food dish!
I also routinely overwinter hostas and many other plants (300-400) every year. I buy hostas as liners in the spring and put 3 to 6 in a pot. At this time of year I typically re-pot them as a group in larger pots and sink them in my holding bed. I have found in my zone hostas survive better and begin growing sooner in the spring if they are grouped in larger pots rather than individually in smaller containers. Only when they get to be gallon size or larger do I pot them up individually.
I also agree with LeBug that re-potting in fresh soil increases chances of winter survival.
If rot is a problem when you sink your pots, you could try covering the pots with a sheet of plastic, before mulching over the top. The nursery I work at (Zone 3b) winters things over by placing pots on a tarp, scattering rodent bait, covering everything over with a giant sheet of plastic, and piling several feet of straw on top. When we uncover in the spring, everything is just the way we packed it away. I don't think you really have to cover with that much straw, probably; we're just super-careful because it's inventory.
Up here, if I plant them out too late, I'm likely to get frost heave of the roots which can be damaging to the plants. So, it's probably safer to plant the entire pot if possible. However, I don't plant good, expensive pots in the garden as there is risk the pot could get broken during the winter. I DO have a large compost pile that will get emptied into my veggie garden as soon as there is space. It will sit there all winter until we screen it next spring and I've had good success burying pots of hosts in that pile of compost.
Just wondering -- has anyone tried overwintering potted minis indoors? Would it work to bring them in and treat them like houseplants for the winter?
Hostas need a period of dormancy to survive. If you gave them that period before bringing them indoors, you might be able to get them to break dormancy earlier, but I haven't tried it.
Thank you, ViolaAnn. Maybe I'll try it next year with something I can divide. (Overwinter one indoors, one out)
Also wanted to tell you that I love the pics you posted earlier in this thread. Nice collection!
Last summer I had a number of hosta seedlings in small pots. I planted them out a few at a time,picking the best. When I got down to the last four I quit watering them and then just dumped them out on a bench in an unheated greenhouse, I think in August. This spring when I was cleaning up the bench two of the four had green showing. After several months of both heat and cold completely dry they had survived. I repotted them and both grew. Wish more desireable things were this vigorous.
Zoar - thanks for the thanks, but I'm mystified as to which pics you are referring to.
Oh, geez. Sorry about that! The pics were in another thread. They were your minis -- nice collection!
Oh - I guess the mini thread. Thanks. I haven't got much space left; so I'm collecting more and more little ones. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1139972/ for any who didn't see the pics.
I just have to put my 2 cents worth in here. I have been experimenting with leaving hostas in pots outdoors all winter for the last 3 years in zone 5a. I haven't lost one yet. I got the idea when I accidentally left a big chunk of hosta in a cardboard tray out all winter (just forgot about it). In the spring it sent up shoots just as if it were in the ground. Since then I have used divisions of my hostas as permanent plantings in decorative pots, you know, where the pot is really the thing you want to highlight. If the pot itself cannot stay out through the winter I put the hosta in a plastic pot that I can remove from the pottery one in the winter. I just stick the plastic pot under an evergreen or somewhere where it will get a little shelter.
Last year I put several shoots of Kabitan in one of those plastic swans (which a sweet elderly neighbor gave me on Mother’s Day). I just left it sitting out all winter with no further protection and it looks really good this year, if a little kitschy.
I haven't repotted any of these hostas yet but assume some day that will be required.
I say don't over complicate it. Just try it with some divisions of hostas you have already so you won't risk a new purchase. Hostas look great in pots. Four photos are 1. An empty pot before I dropped the hosta back into it after winter, 2. same pot with Emerald Tiara hosta in summer pretty well surrounded by plants, 3. Crepe Suzette hosta in an enameled bucket (somebody told me it's a chamber pot)….4. that species, ”the common urban plastic swan” with Kabitan hosta. The hosta is fuller this year and drooping over the edges of the planter but I don’t have a recent photo right now.
Chris like you I have been over wintering hostas in their pots. I have used the fiberglass or foam pots not sure what they are made of.. We had a mild year so I wasn't sure if I was just lucky or not.
I am feeling more confident about doing it more. My shade trees are getting huge and they are shallow rooted trees. I can't dig under then anymore so maybe the pots will work.
Chris, that's a great idea to use the hosta to highlight the planter! I really like that. I have some Praying Hands I wanted to use as a focal point in a tall planter, and now have your suggestion to plant them in a plastic pot to stick in a ceramic one. Thanks!
I recently had to dig up one of my hostas that had some rot on it. I cleaned it up and put it in a pot in our sunroom (3-seasons room). It's growing back amazingly well so now I'm wondering what to do with it over the winter. This is a special hosta so I thought about leaving it in its pot all summer so it can safely grow back. I have it planted in a plastic pot that's sitting inside a large crock.
Would it work well to just leave it in the sunroom all winter? And maybe add a little water now and then? There is no heat out there - just a room surrounded by all glass windows. Thanks!
If you can divide it, maybe divide it, put part outside and part in the sunroom? A thought.
I have a solar room and I leave tropicals in there but never left perennials, course mine has heat also.
That's a good idea, happgarden ... I sure wish it was big enough to split. I just got it this spring. It's from a mature plant, but I only got a fairly small piece of it. Great suggestion though. Thanks!
Has anyone ever left a hosta to overwinter in a sunroom/3-seasons porch?
I found an article on the website of Plant Delights Nursery, Inc. titled "Hostas for Warm Climates" which states "Most Hostas must have a minimum winter dormancy requirement of 30 days at temperatures below 43 degrees F." It does however list several hosta species (some of which I recognized) which grow in warmer climates but didn't really say precisely what their dormancy requirements are. You might want to check it out.