Last year I dug up my dahlias, cannas etc and stored them indoors as that's what I always did living in Calgary. I have had several people tell me they just leave their in the ground. What do you other west coast gardeners do?
I have dahlias, cannas, ee that i brought in last year. Also how are most of you overwintering your fuschia and geraniums? I cut the tops almost right off the fuschia last year and sort of let them go dormant in my green house, but I read that you can dig a hole and bury them. My geraniums I had in the green house and they also survived fine, but I have read about hanging them upside down in a garage.
Thanks Cindy
West coast bulb wintering ideas
I bring my cannas, dahlias in for the winter. Because they aren't under an overhang to keep them dry during the rainy season they rot in the open ground. If you have a protected spot from rain they should be OK. If we get a very cold winter you could mulch them.
I bring my fuchsias in and just let them go almost dormant. I like them big so I don't cut them back much just tie them in with twine so they don't take up too much room. Sorry, I don't have geraniums. OK, I lied I have one ~ Vancouver. I just pot it up and treat it like the fuchsias.
The ee's I bring in unless I have loads of them. The common esculenta gets left in and generally the main bulb rots but side shoots come up in the spring when the soil warms.
Liz, do you just leave the foliage on the fuschias? I have tried to keep fuschias over, and have always cut them back severely. Some years they have come back, some not!!!
Glenda
Glenda, the brugs get the priority gh space. Once they are all in everything else just gets tucked in wherever there is a space. I do keep my ee's in a separate small room with the non-hardy gingers and anything else, like the plumbagos etc that can basically be left alone over winter. The fuchsias I just leave alone. They drop their leaves on their own then in spring I just lightly cut them back to where the new growth starts. Water them like a wintering dormant brug. Just enough to keep it alive but not enough to get it growing. They don't need light.
Cindy, when I mentioned about the ee's I meant the colocasias. Last night our temps went down to 8c. Today I am digging up the alocasias. They can go dormant below 45F so are coming out now just to be safe. Once they go dormant they can take up to a whole season to come into leaf again.
This message was edited Sep 22, 2005 7:20 AM
Cindy, I leave my cannas out,but they are under a south facing overhang, so really this just affirms what Liz says. I do have a dahlia that came back against a fence for several years, but last winter killed it off.
As for fuchsias, if you mean the regular tender kind I only have one, a standard, and I bring it into a lighted garage where it gets almost no water over the winter. I also grow the hardy fuchsia magellanica and a couple of others and they survive fine outdoors.
When I was little I lived on the sunshine coast and there we treated hardy fuchsias like any other shrub -- they are "smart plants" -- behaving like perennials (dying back to the ground ) when its cold and like shrubs (preserving a woody framework) when it isn't.
I have read about the hanging of geraniums overwinter, but have never bothered. sounds neat, though.
M
Thanks for the advise, I don't mind digging them up and bringing them in, but had a couple people say it wasn't necessary. I also have brugs, and left them growing in the green house until it got a bit too cold, then cut them back and rooted them in a water and bubbler system. I have about 6 different brugs, and have a trade set up with a lady in Duncan for three more different ones.My whole yard smells so beautiful in the evenings.
When I stored my tubers in the past I have hung them in net bags, or stored them in well ventilated boxes. Has any one here tried the saran wrap method?Thanks for the imput
Cindy
There is a list called PNW, full of bulb and other plants questions.
Google it maybe to fine. I've no time to hut for it right now.
Cheers
Inanda
You can also leave callas in the ground even in the open. They come back every year.