Smoke is rising from the chimneys, fog rolls down the bay, frost falls softly, quietly like snow on bare branches and dying leaves. Fall’s relentless march is fast fading into the dark misty morning and winter is close on it’s heels pushing its way in. The fabric of the garden changes dramatically overnight. Brilliance replaced by soft muted wheat colors, dusty purple, faded reds and oranges. Bare branches and stark silhouettes edge the once lush pathway. The time has come to tuck those tempermental, (temperiennials) into the garden for the winter.
As many of you know I love the huge foliage and exuberance of tropicalissimo. Every year I anticipate the window of time when I need to get them ready for the winter. Many of them can take the cold but can’t take the wet, many need mulch mounded around the base of their crowns to make it through a cold snap. There are many methods for doing this and I will share what I know and what has been successful in my garden.
I usually wait for the first quick frost to set the dormancy in motion. Sometimes we have great growing weather even in October and this year November. I have several plants that have already come into the greenhouse for overwintering that can take no frost. These have been in the greenhouse about 3 weeks now. A quick frost would kill the burgmansias, bouginvillas, and red bananas. The other things in my garden that are zone 8 can be successfully wintered over with help.
I have grown agaves in my garden for several years with only one making it through the winter. That winter I had a shrub growing nearby over hanging the plants. I had forgotten to cut it back during the summer and it was too late to do it by the time I noticed it. That next spring I found that where the shrub’s branches had covered the agaves they were alive and came through the winter fine. In the same bed where the branches didn’t reach the agaves they were dead. Ah Ha lesson learned. Now I use cut back pieces of my tall gingers to lay over the agaves. Their large leaves create air space and by waiting until they are nipped by frost they are not too heavy and full of moisture that they turn to mush on the ground.
The Gunnera in the lower garden gets the same treatment. I use the leaves of the plant itself to give it protection. I cut them off and turn them upside down. The Gunnera signaled it’s dormancy early with curled dead edges on the leaves. This Gunnera is hardy here but by protecting the crown of the plant it takes less time to come back from dormancy and puts on fantastic growth each year.
Sometimes you can protect plants that are new to your garden for the first year in the same way. I put a Fremontodendron californicum (wooly flannel bush) in this year. I protected it with cut bamboo over the branches and crown. Because it has a branching structure already and is not completely herbaceous I didn’t want to lay anything too heavy to weigh down the branches. It hates water and is planted in gravel here. I’ll let you know if it survives. (If you want to read something interesting look up this plant on the internet. It has so much conflicting information published about it! One site says frost tender zone 8 and another say hardy to negative 20)
After the first frost I do cut down the gingers, cannas, and dahlias. I spread a thin layer of dry mulch over the top and also add fallen leaves over that. I use washed cow manure because it has nutrients to add to the soil as it decomposes. I leave these bulbs and temperiennals in the ground. They multiply and come back each year. My soil has lots of organic material in it and drains freely.
Tuberose begonias get to come inside after the frost as well. They have been still growing and filling the spaces with fabulous oranges and reds until this frost. Prolonged freezing of these bulbs will result in death so don’t leave them outside. Again the frost helps the bulb know dormancy so the bulbs can be stored for winter.
It’s time to put the garden to bed. Stay tuned for our next post with more helpful information.
