Northeast Gardening: Let's be honest....what have you bought so far this winter?, 1 by Noreaster

Noreaster wrote:
Oh yeah, I do that with my hydrangea. I told myself that would be my ONE plant that I baby, lol. I planted it before I found out it was only rated to zone 6...don't even know why the local nursery carried it, if that was the case. This year, I built a styrofoam box around it...which blew off the other day in the wind. Now I've got it tied down, but it looks like it's back to the drawing board as far as winter protecting the hydrangea. I didn't do the wire bin full of leaves this year because I had several branches break off under the weight of the wet leaves and ice, etc.

That area with that larger hosta is raised up a bit and separated from the Lily of the Valley by a stone wall...though I expect I'll have runners to deal with regardless. I use a lot of hypertufa containers mixed in with my planting, and my idea was to make a really big one for a JM and put in where the sucker tree currently is. When you bury a JM with leaves for winter, do you entirely encase it, or just bury the pot and roots?

Here is another view of that spot I think you're talking about.