I was perusing the New York Botanical Gardens’ blog (yes, a botanical garden has a blog, a pretty good one actually) and came across some advice for container gardeners who live in areas with real winters:
If it is containers that you are concerned about, the simplest answer is Bubble Wrap. Garden centers sometimes sell a horticultural version that has a silver foil lining with Bubble Wrap inside. Insulate hardy containers once they freeze; with half-hardy containers, insulate before they freeze. Wrap the container with Bubble Wrap and secure with garden twine. If possible, tie the Bubble Wrap over the top of the container, pulling it up around the base of the plants so that the soil in the container is covered. This will help protect it from the freezing and thawing cycle that usually happens in February. If your container is not hardy, place it in an unheated garage so that it can go dormant for the winter.
I’ve never seen horticultural bubble wrap at my local nurseries, but it doesn’t get much below 50 degrees in my neck of the woods. Has anyone ever bubble wrapped their pots before? How did it work out?
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This is interesting. I had never heard this method before. We usually bring our few containers to our basement to go dormant. I’ll be checking back to see what other people say.
Cindy — Me neither! But like I said, protecting pots from freezing temps isn’t really something I do all thst often.
Thanks for this great info. I’ve never heard of this special bubble wrap, but will check it out next year. I had a collection of hostas in different pots; since I live in Colorado and do not have a lot of shade and wanted to give hostas a try. The shade we do have is on the north side of our house under a balcony/deck. I brought the potted plants in one winter & kept them in the basement which is heated but stays pretty cool, and took them back out the following spring and they survived. The next winter I did the same thing and only one survived. That was a rather expensive experiment because I had collected some pricey, harder to find varieties. Next time I’ll start out with a smaller collection.