Winter kills

There’s still a couple weeks before the official start of winter, but the signs are already in the air, like early morning chills and occasional light to heavy freezes.  

These things aren't a problem for those who are prepared to let their garden sleep until spring.

Most of my garden is filled with perenials that will sleep through the winter and re-appear in the spring. Other annuals that I’ve added for color or variety I allow to wither and return to the ground they come from — I’ll add some new ones next spring & summer.

But then I have a lot of pots full of sensitive plants intended for other warmer climates, some of which I’ve had for years, and though it’s a lot of work to prepare them for winter, it’s worth it.

Those I have already begun to protect by overwintering.

My plumerias & Madagascar palms have been hauled off to the storage space.

Others, like my agaves and sago palms,

I’m covering with “plankets.” A few I’ve had success with by bringing them into the house, like my desert roses.

And my crazy cactus.

I don’t know the real name for the cactus. Its arms grow in all directions.

I picked it up at a local flea market and the seller didn’t know much about it.

By the beginning of December, I’m ready for a break.

After the hauling, moving and covering to prepare my pots, I hope my plants are ready for their long winter naps.

Out of overwintering with wine

It's time to start thinking about the weekend. 

I think it's going to be warm enough this weekend to bring out some plants that I have been overwintering.

As some of my plants matured over the past few years, I have been overwintering them in a few different locations.

It allows me to start the new growing season with mature plants that are ready to be reintroduced to the warmer temperatures and the longer sunny days.

I have some large Madagascar Palms that I started bringing into my house a few years ago — they both started out as small stalks. One of the Madagascar Palms I bought in a 6-inch pot at my local big box store. They are both now over 4 feet tall, so I have been hauling them off to my storage unit and letting them go dormant during the winter. It's a pain, but it's well worth it when spring comes around.

I have some smaller paddle plants, cacti and succulents that I drag either into my garage or my house — they don't go dormant during the winter but can't tolerate freezing temps, so I water them as needed and am able to enjoy them inside all winter — and during longer spurts of mild weather, I move them out onto my patio where I can enjoy them. 

Two of my favorites to bring through the winter are the desert rose and plumeria. I bought a few plumeria stalks at a flea market a few years ago and they have now grown to large trees. I take those to my storage place now because they're so big and they will sleep all winter without any water or light and was rewarded last summer for the first time with white flowers on 2 of my plumerias. I would bring them into my garage, but if you have a garage that looks like mine does, you know why I don't.

My experience with the desert roses has been that they don't do as well if I let them go dormant and don't care for them at all during the winter. I have two desert rose plants that I brought into the house this year and just watered them occasionally, and they already have some green leaves. I'm hoping to be able to send them back outside in a few weeks.

The great thing about all of these plants is that they are all low maintenance plants if you're also a lazy gardener and you can enjoy them in almost any size container. You can bring them into your apartment, house or garage when the temperatures drop, and in the spring, you can take them back out onto your balcony, patio or deck and you've already got the your garden started — and if you’re lucky, your plumeria might reward you with some nice white or pink blooms this summer.

This weekend I have a new Malbec I'm going to have on hand as I'm arranging my plants that have returned from overwintering — it's Alambrado — an associate of mine is a member of wine club and passed it along for me to try.

I'll let you know next week how it all turns out. 

If you have experiences with overwintering — or Alambrado — I'd like to hear them.