Hi all....what exactly is the difference between a 'tender' perennial and just yer plain 'ol regular 'perennial'? A newbie herb gardener, guess I'm learning as I go...er rather, 'grow' :-) Also, how does one 'overwinter' an herb, or even know which need to be brought inside (guess that depends on your zone, right?) I'm in zone 5b. My first garden was last year and the chives, garlic chives , tarragon and winter savory survived, however the thyme, sage and oregano did not. Are these not perennials? Would these survive if I 'transplanted' them to pots and kept them in the garage? As usual, I await with eager anticipation any advice all you wonderful folks here at Dave's always seem willing to provide!
Sharron
Perennial vs 'tender' perennial?
Hi, Sharron. Welcome to the wonderful world of herbs! I'm in zone 3, and I have 'wintered over' oregano, sage, and thyme, but it has to be protected, and it's always iffy. As for chives, they're tough little fellows and don't need much special care anywhere that I know of! I've only grown Russian tarragon, and it is not much of a culinary herb, but it is perennial here. My neighbor wintered over her culinary tarrigon in a bed next to her house for years, but I believe she lost it last winter.
I would consider 'wintering over' to mean keeping a plant alive over the winter. You can winter over outdoors or indoors. A 'tender perennial' would probably need to stored indoors with occasional watering to survive a cold winter. Some 'tender perennials' are also considered 'perennials grown as annuals' in many areas. That means that the tender perennial will provide the desired foliage, fruit, or blooms in the first year, so it will serve as an annual in your area, even though the zoning is out of your range.
I've tried bringing herbs indoor in the fall, but it never works for me. I suppose they need the same efforts to adjust to the indoors as our spring bedding plants need to adjust to the outdoors. Instead of 'hardening off', perhaps they need 'hardening in'. Also, when you bring plants indoors, you risk bringing in whatever garden pests ride along, such as aphids. Since I grow many plants from seed indoors in the spring, I just can't risk it.
It certainly is worth trying to winter over plants outdoors. Often a bit of good mulch will protect them enough to keep them alive. Snow is an excellent mulch, but if you get much freezing and thawing, the plant will get a bit confused. Otherwise, many of these herbs aren't all that expensive to purchase again in the spring, or to start from seed. In some cases, they will reseed themselves in your garden and pop up as seedlings in the spring, so don't start digging too early.
Also, keep in mind that plants in pots are less likely to winter over than plants that are in the ground.
Hey, Sharron, and Welcome to DG. I'd think some of the herbs that don't survive your winters would do better potted and in the garage than a heated house. I have brought thyme and lemon verbena in the house but they barely survive.
Yours will probably be trial and error until you see what works. One thing to consider: when you know an herb must be brought into the garage for winter, you may want to consider keeping it in a pot year round. Bury the pot in the ground in summer and just lift the pot in fall. Less stress to the root system then.
Use our Plants Database (tab at the top of page) and see what information is posted for each herb you like.
Good advice, Darius!
Hey Weez' amd Darius....thanks muchly. I was thinking that I would at the very least try to overwinter stuff, just to see what happens. Was thinking about transplanting into pots and storing in the garage,...but of course, that leads to another question ! :-) If they are stored in pots in a cold, dark garage....does that mean I should not water???.....or water sparingly??? As you can tell, I don't know a thing about what to do with plants that are in a 'dormant' stage! I also have a question -- though not actually 'herb' related - about my strawberry plant I purchased this summer. It is in one of those strawberry pots with all the holes. When I purchased it, the staff at the nursery told me to just "...leave it in the pot and bring it into the garage over winter..", however, I of course didn't think about all the 'runners' I now have hanging down from it. What do I do about those? If I cut them off, won't I be killing them because they haven't 'rooted' to anything? Or, can I cut them off and 'store' them in something too? Ah...questions, questions, questions! Thanks all!
Sharron
The things I overwinter in pots in the dark cold basement still get some water about once a month to keep them from totally drying out.
You might be able to pack the cut-off strawberry runners in damp sphagnum for the winter. Not too damp, they will rot.
If the runners have developed roots, I'd snip them off and plant them somewhere outdoors. The only reason for bringing the potted ones in is that perennials don't usually survive cold winters in pots. The fluctuation in temp can be as damaging as the cold. I've potted many runners to small containers, then wintered them over outdoors, insulated from the cold and covered with mulch. This works if they have been potted early enough for the roots to take hold.
weezingreens.....as for runners....guess they can only develop roots if I snip them off and put them in water first?......or should I put some rooting compount on the ends (there doesn't appear to be actual 'roots' ) and just stick them in soil??? (sheesh!...can you believe I don't know!? :-)
stimmins, strawberry runners will develop roots whether they touch ground or not. Usually, they keep reaching out until they find a point of purchase. Wait for little roots to start appearing on the leafed out end of the runner, then either snip it and plant the rooted part...you can trim off much of the extra runner stem... or just push the end down into the soil next to the mother plant. In your case, with them being in a hanging pot, I'd let them develop a bit of roots, then clip them off.
On the other hand, if you have a spot of garden bed, just plant them in and move them where you want them in the spring. The sooner you get them in the ground to establish roots before freeze, the better.
P.S. You may already know this, but when planting strawberry plants, be sure to leave the crown above ground.