Garden Plants

Tender plants in winter

By Sue Hamilton

Sue with standard fuchsia

Sue Hamilton won't let the prospect of a winter freeze stop her from growing tender plants

'People always look at me in disbelief when I tell them that I like to keep my overwintering plants almost at the point of wilting.'

I always feel just a little sadness for gardeners who do not grow tender plants in the garden because they need looking after in the winter. I find that the enjoyment I get from gardening is all about being out there doing things, and any plant that gives me extra opportunity to do this, as well as a non-stop display of flowers all summer, is one that will definitely be found in my garden.

I like to overwinter not only tender plants, but also cuttings from those plants, so that if one decides to turn up its toes, I will always have something to fall back on.

Take cuttings in August

With cuttings, my ideal is to take them during August and get them rooted and potted into 8cm (3in) pots before winter, as I find them less volatile at this stage and therefore more likely to survive. Unfortunately, having the time to get out in the garden and take cuttings of all my lovely tender plants is not always possible, so I usually end up with some cuttings potted and some just rooted in module trays.

The main problem with tender plants during winter, generally, is that they succumb very quickly to overwatering. The answer is to keep them on the dry side all the time. Visitors to the gardens always look at me in amazement and disbelief when I tell them that I like to keep my overwintering plants almost at the point of wilting and only water them when the leaves take on a dull look, as with osteospermums, or just start to look like wilting. At this point I will give them just enough water to moisten the compost and no more. Within an hour they look as right as rain with no after effects, except that they are still alive and usually flowering sporadically through the winter in their cosy greenhouse.

Overwintering standard fuchsias

An excellent tip I was given by an amateur gardener for overwintering standard fuchsias has helped to keep our own plant safe in a cold greenhouse during some very harsh winters. The trick is to insulate the long stems using a length of foam pipe lagging that you can cut to the required length using scissors and push onto the stem easily. So every winter our standard fuchsia is well protected, at a very minimal cost.

As cuttings rooted into modules are in less compost than those in pots, they are much more likely to become overwatered so extra care is needed, but the same principles are applied as with potted plants. There is no great benefit in potting on cuttings now, as they will not have enough time to root into the pot, so they will have too much cold and wet compost around their roots to survive through winter.

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