Overwintering Perennials in Containers: Overwintering perennials

» MaggieM - Overwintering perennials

Ann - this topic is of great interest, and importance to me.....I have a large second story deck which comprises most of my gardening space (townhouse type lot, not a lot of real ground). Our deck is our yard.

I live in zone 4-5 US - with cold winters and any pot left out freeezes through. I have had some luck by putting my pots with perennials - mostly ornamental herbs - right up against the house in a corner, packing them in closely with other pots (they still have soil in them but I've taken out the finished annual or veggies), then tarping over. the following plants (mostly herbs) have come back year after year (often they need dividing and refurbishing in spring): chives, tarragon, betony, thyme (sometimes).

This year I have some other things to try.....they all are hardy in my zone, so we'll see because I am sure that the pots will freeze all the way through (I have put them only in good, not flimsy, plastic pots, I don't want to lose any clay pots or plants). There's a monarda, salad burnet, a new kind of feverfew (White stars), and a new kind of tansy (Jackpot - I have grown this from seed and some of this will go in the real land garden space I have, small as it is). I have also been saving bubble wrap because straw is way to messy. Next year I plan to try more flowering plants.

I love ornamnetal grasses and know that they do well in pots (or so they say). I bought two small Stipas (ponytail grass), which are apparently marginally hardy here. They are not in the ground yet, because of the drought, so I plan to put one in the real ground and mulch it like crazy, another I will try to overwinter in a pot.

I have minimal indoor space with any light to bring pots in to, only my lemon verbena and lemon grass get to come inside. I do have a sort of unheated mud room, storage room, laundry room. If it gets really cold out there, its off our kitchen, we run a small electric heater to keep the pipes from freezing. So, do I try to mimic a plants zonal requirements over the winter? For example, if I have a zone 7 plant do I want to try to keep it at the lowest zone 7 temp over the winter? Has anyone had any luck with this? Even with protection, I think all my pots outside will freeze through at some point.

Great article.......I'd love to hear from other overwinters!

-- posted by MaggieM