Overwintering
By alocoloman
9 comments
The time has come (as it does every year) to make the decision as to when to remove the tropical plants from the pond to drier quarters for the winter. The original plan was last Sunday – idea being take them out of the pond and leave them standing around for a few days to dry off before deciding whether or not to repot them into dry compost (I only use peat free).
However the weather forecast last Sunday on BBC for the week ahead was too nice (as the last couple of days have proved) to disturb them, hence I left them in situ.
I won’t leave them beyond this weekend though as I have to start getting things ready for when the weather is cooling down – this weekend being such a time allegedly.
I need to build two glass structures to house my plants plus some are already in my Uncle’s greenhouse – where they had gone to dry out but instead due to the risk of wilting were watered!! The idea being not to keep them all in one place should that place fail in some way to protect them adequately.
Then the very special (one-off) plants will be coming into the house for the winter. Not ideal but they are too difficult to replace to risk losing them. These include my Remusatias, Xanthosomas and some Alocasias/Colocasias.
The truly aquatic Cannas and Thalias (Colocasias are semi aquatic swamp plants) need to be moist all the time – yet not have the roots freeze. So they will be left in the pond until the first frosts come (as obviously don’t need to be dried out) Thalia Dealbata (from Florida) did impressively well to survive (just) last winter on the pond’s marginal shelf when Zantedeschia aethiopica did not. The cannas (then fewer in number) took up a privileged position in trays of water in my parents (carpeted) conservatory (which is just visible in the top of the ‘view from the bridge’ pic of my plants). I can’t see that happening this time though. How simpler things would be if I had my parents house as I’d know precisely where all my plants would be overwintering if it were my conservatory!
So let’s hope October gives me the opportunity weather wise for my construction work – deep joy!!
Scott
22 Sep, 2010
2 likes
Next post: Overwintering continued
Comments
Thanks for that idea Jason I may have a look at that approach. Long term the wish is to get pond and all under glass and triple glazed at that and go from there
22 Sep, 2010
Good luck with overwintering your plants. I understand what you mean by wanting your parents' conservatory. I have my own now in this house, and it keeps my cacti safe through the winter.
22 Sep, 2010
Thanks Hywel
Lucky you. I had one on my last house too though it was not very warm as at the end of it at the back facing north-east. My parents' one is tucked in at the back of the bungalow with one side wall being the extension for the dining area at the end of the kitchen which has the original back door into the house itself. And the other end wall faces west. My Colocasia Jack's giant ticked over throughout the winter in it last year.
23 Sep, 2010
I suppose they can be cold. Mine has a radiator in it lol - and it faces west, so it's all right. It can get a bit too hot in summer actually, but nice if the weather is cool.
Maybe you'll have one some day.
24 Sep, 2010
my parents have a vertical panel one in there too on the back wall of the house. Of course one benefit is it's made their house a lot warmer as effectively got rid of an exterior wall
When I get the chance to acquire another property again then it definitely has to suit both animal and vegetable life lol
As for the plants themselves they are all but one out of the pond. The most vigorous one - which you can see at the left of the picture of the bridge - is in a rather large pond basket, as opposed to an ordinary pot. So I will get that out and repotted/divided over the weekend. Then we are promised at least three dry days from here to get them ready for over wintering
24 Sep, 2010
Lovely blog, Good luck with your overwintering!
29 Oct, 2010
Thanks for that Lin
Pleased to say I've almost done the gazebo transformation in my parents garden ready to house the Cannas and Thalias from the pond. They will be out when the weather turns cold.
I hope to get the final bits done tomorrow then that really will be job done as hoped by the end of October :-)
I have documented it all from start to finish in pictures, whcich will be on here for all to see by this time next week I hope.
30 Oct, 2010
Glad you've got your Gazebo sorted and shall be looking forward to reading your blog when all's finished :-)
31 Oct, 2010
Recent posts by alocoloman
- My new website
18 Jul, 2016
- My website
17 Mar, 2013
- My big gardening project(s)
15 Mar, 2013
- The overwintering gazebo
24 Nov, 2010
- Overwintering continued
27 Sep, 2010
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3 May, 2010
Interesting - I always drop my Zantedeschias into the bottom of the pond, and cover - floating on top - 2/3's of the pond with insulation mats, only the underside - wood - making contact with the water. All plants and fish survive. In my early days I didn't know about insulating, so just used to drop the plants down to the bottom every year. Never had any failures. You might like to try it.
Jason - Derek's friend.
22 Sep, 2010