I was thinking of buying around 100 Perennials at half price and keeping them for next year, but I was wondering if anyone knows how I can overwinter them. I live in NY Zone 6 and I have a unheated garage. Or does anyone have any other ideas?
Overwintering Perennials in Zone 6
The reason I don't want to plant them is because I would like to try my hand at selling them. Sort of like a home nursery. I figured this is a good way to start. Unless someone has any other ideas?
mrstriz, I winter over hundreds of potted plants in my zone 3. Here is what I do:
I trim back the plants and label with a good permanent marker.
I place the larger pots in leaf piles or somewhere that provides mulch around the pots... you can bury them up to the top in soil, too.
I await the first good freeze, then cover with straw or other type of mulch, then cover the whole thing with a layer of plastic. (I do this because we have very wet winters, and should the pots fill with water, the plants can literally drown before spring thaw is completed.) (I wait for first freeze so that the roots are not accessible to voles or other critters that like to feast on them over the winter.)
I begin pulling the plastic as the snow and ice recedes, then the mulch as the weather permits.
Winters are so variable here, that one method does not always work, and I always lose a few plants. Most are grown from seed, so the loss is usually in time, not money invested. If this is a money thing, I'd try it on a limited basis for the next year or two to see if it is profitable and successful.
Thank you for your suggestion. Question: In my zone do you think that I need to put the plastic?
The only reason I put the plastic on is to keep the pots from waterlogging in the spring or during the summer if it warms up. The pots fill with water, but can't drain because it is frozen under them. If you don't have problems with winter or pre-thaw rains, I doubt it would be necessary.
By the way, your climate is probably colder that ours in the winter. Our temps seldom get down below the 20'sF. Most perennials don't mind freezing, but in milder climates they freeze and thaw many times over the winter. The mulch is more for keeping the temperature constant than keeping them warm.
Also, snow is a great mulch. It offers insulation and it contains nutrients for the plants. If you can maintain a good snow cover over plants that are zoned for your area, they should do well. Some people suggest tipping pots sideways in a furrowed row so that the pots can drain. I've never tried it, but it could work.
I did a DG search on the subject, and there are many, many links. Maybe someone closer to your zoning can be of more help: http://davesgarden.com/forums/search.php?forum=&search_text=wintering+potted+perennials&limit=0&limit_poster=&Search=Search
Thank you very much for all of your suggestions. If I decide to try it I will let you know how it turns out this spring.
Yes, please , Mrstriz, any information would be valuable!
Perennials planted in the fall put their energy into growing roots. Perennials planted in the spring put their energy into reproducing so grow stems, leaves, flowers and seed. They tend to winterkill easier than fall planted perennials. Just MHO. Keep us updated on what you decide to do and how it turns out. Always looking for better and more info. :) Just remembered I had a dwarf burning bush in a 5 gal. pot in the garage all winter and it is doing great - besides being potbound. I'm hoping to get it in the ground this fall...can't seem to find the right spot. lol
Kooger, When you say 'perennials planted in the fall', are you referring to starting them from seed or transplanting from pot to garden? Or are you referring to sowing seed in the fall? Wouldn't seed sown in the fall just germinate in the spring? Our season is so short here that I seldom start any kind of seeds any later that spring.
I meant from pot to garden. I doubt if any fall sown seed would germinate because they need the cold spell first.
Well, that makes good sense, Kooger, but here's an interesting thing... I winter over lots of potted plants, and after extremely unfriendly winters, I can lose lots of plants. Invariably, the most likely to survive are the poor little fellows that spent the entire summer and winter in 6 packs. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why. Any suggestions?
It's kind of like those hem gals that talk about forgetting some in plastic bags in their garage for 2 months or more, then finding them and they're blooming!!! It's what makes gardening never a dull moment - about the time you think you've done something right, it dies on you! lol
There's some plants I just have decided not to grow here - mums is one of them. They're pretty but it seems like only the white ones last for more than 5 years. MIL planted a whole row beside the hedge of all different colors and there's only 3 white ones left. :( Tall bearded iris is another I tend to avoid - about the time they're looking beautiful, along comes the wind and swoosh - flat as a pancake! Since wind in spring is a daily occurence here, that's a lot of pancakes! I have only 5 TB.
Do you think those neglected plants are in hibernation for so long they're just tougher? lol Who knows? Not me!
I wonder if being so root bound has something to do with it... or the fact that they are in separate cells... you'd think they'd freeze and thaw faster and die first... ah, well, as you say, you never know.
There are some new varieties of Tall Bearded Iris that are supposed to be hardier. A friend of mine had a beauty, but it only lasted two seasons. We can grow our local flags (Iris setosa), and some of the Siberian varieties, but bearded are definitely 'iffy'.
As for mums, we can grow shastas, but the others are out of our zoning. My mother used to grow those spoon mums in the midwest when I was a kid, and they were such a lovely sight in the fall when all the other flowers were fading. I grow some of the annual mums such as paludosums, some of the little yellow ones, and some others I can't recall the name of. That's about the best I can do here.
I switched to asters last fall - really happy with Purple Dome but the Thyra Viking is a definite bummer. The flowers finally opened, didn't even last a week and they're all dried up already. The P.D. has been blooming for a couple weeks already and is still beautiful. Think I'm gonna look for one of those 5 footers - I know a gal who is a Master Gardener and speaks at a lot of events - she's got the really big ones and she loves to share. My kind of gal!!!!
Are the iris iffy for you because of the winter moisture? You're only one zone colder than me but I bet you get a lot more moisture.
Yes, perhaps that is the problem. Our winters are extremely wet, often thawing and becoming a slushy mess. Sometimes we lose bulbs because they are waterlogged and rot. Fortunately, our little Iris setosa won't die if you chase it around the yard with a large, heavy shovel. That's the beauty of natives.
Weeze, if your temps rarely get below 20 degrees F, then your zone is definitely higher than mine. We rarely see temps of above 20 degrees F from mid December until Feb. Most likely the temps hover between 0 degrees and mid teens. Some years we get a good snow cover, but those years are becoming fewer and far between. Mostly dry cold.
Oh wow! I just reread your post Weez and realized I'd read it as rarely below -20F. Joan is right - you're warmer than us here too. I'm a tad warmer than Joan but still z4. Definitely more dry cold here in the past years too. Wonder how they do these zone maps?
I have a gardening friend that explained the whole Alaska zonal issue, but, of course, I've forgotten it! LOL! Alaska is such a big state, that there are many different weather conditions. I believe Southeastern is much like the rest of the Pacific Northwest, and Southcentral (where we are located) is a bit more chilled. We generally consider ourselves zone 3 here, but I can often grow zone 4 & 5 plants if they like cool, moist soil and temps. Like most places, it takes trial and error to find what works and what doesn't.