Bringing Tarragon In

Posted by Kate Copsey Dec 23, 2006

Winter Treatment for French Tarragon and Spring Bulbs.

Today I remembered to dig up and store my French tarragon. This culinary plant is plenty hardy for the winter in the south, but requires a cold winter to really do well. I dug up the plant, that was still rather small being just one season old, and trimmed away all the dead and brown foliage. It was then watered lightly before sealing into a freezer bag, and placed at the bottom of the freezer. With luck in the late winter, I will be able to bring out the root ball and replant it for a healthy plant next year. This same treatment can be used for spring flowering bulbs such as tulips that also need a hard winter to produce optimum growth. My plan for those is to let them flower this first year and then dig them up in the summer, when they are fully dormant and store them in the freezer. Placement into the garden will be trial and error though. If done too early, they will sprout prematurely, and if too late the summer heat will put them back into dormancy before they have a chance to bloom. It will take a year of two to figure out how long to keep them cold, and which bulbs respond best to this treatment. Some may have to be container bulbs where the environment can be maintained and manipulated more easily.