Hi Y'all,
I was not very successful last winter in keeping my favorite plants from freezing. Please help me know what to do, when to do it, and how much to do for these plants:
Blue Plumbego
Mexican sage bush
Rangoon Creeper
Pride of Barbados
American Beauty Berry (do I trim it at all? I didn't last year and it seemed fine...but just curious)
Penta (I think these are annuals in my zone?)
In particular, my DH wanted to know if there is a black plastic to put over the plants after they are cut back and then cover with mulch? Do I cut the plants down when I know a freeze is coming and cover with mulch? I hate to cut anything down now b/c it is in the 70's 80's currently.
Thanks for the help!!
Michelle
How to keep Perennials from dying in winter
Blue Plumbago, Pride of Barbados are both perennials. I let the Bl.P do what it is going to do and usually if you keep the dead looking stems and foliage on them they will prevent the young foliage under it from getting frost bitten. Doesn't look good but it saves the plant. Pride of Barbados goes completely dormant and because it is such a rangy plant I cut it way down in the fall. It has always come back and then some for me. Penta is definitely an annual, at least in our 8b zone. The others, I don't know about but I'm sure someone will be able to give you some good advice about them.
Ann
Well everybody will be posting there own way but here is mine
Pride of Barbados & Plumbago I do nothing w/. Agree that you can cut back but for me when I have cut back POB it recovers somewhat slowly but does recover.
Mexican sage bush- I ignore it, it's fine, dies back but is root hardy.
Rangoon Creeper- I ignore it, it's also root hardy.
American Beauty Berry - there is a time when you are supposed to prune this, think it's after the berries have subsided, but double check me on that. I have pruned mine when it begins out growing the space I think it should live in.
Most of these plants do well on auto pilot.
Amen to the auto-pilot thought. Mostly, people tend to mess w/their plants too much. As far as I'm concerned, if it has to be carefully tended it doesn't belong in MY garden. "If it grows, it grows; if it dies it dies" and that's the reason I don't want to spend that much $$$ on plants if they are too tender to get by on their own. I have 2 plumerias that were just too big for me to move about and now they are only about 4' tall because I have cut the both back and am donating them to a fellow DGer in Florida. They will be on their way by tomorrow, Letty.
Ann
Thanks ladies. My DH got mad at me b/c I allowed his Ixora to die last winter. :( ANd he is paranoid I'll let other plants die. He insists things need to be cut back and mulched heavily so that the roots stay warm.
So all the advice y'all have for me is great!
Michelle
Tell hubby to ease up. Ixoras do not like extreme heat or extreme cold. I've killed a few, even w/ winter protection (and I'm in an area a bit warmer than yours). You're not a bad ixora mommie, this plant is just kinda temperamental.
Up north in "Packerland" they do all sorts of heavy pruning in the fall - roses, clematis, etc- and then mulch heavily. If and when the snow comes that also helps to insulate the plants. If they don't have snow, somehow the plants survive because Green Bay gets really cold and the ground freezes down deep. I've always lived in the flatlands of Houston and we don't prune until February or so. Ixora is a beautiful plant and my DDH loves their looks regardless of the fact that they are not supposed to be hardy here. Have it in a pot and since it is relatively small I can bring it in if a freeze is predicted. Or have him do it. Anything to save that blasted plant. Down in Mexico they are beautiful hedges which they keep trimmed but they keep on blooming and blooming kind of like the Ever. Bunny.........
Ann
I have mexican sage bush and blue plumbago. I add mulch every October (should probably do this atleast once a year anyway). Last year we had two or three hard freezes forcasted (night time temperatures below 25). I covered my sage bushes with a black plastic bag over night on those two or three occasions. Despite my prophylactic methods, one of the sage bushes didn't make it. I have the feeling that covering with the bag didn't do much.
I do prune the following
lavender-25% prune when last of purple flowers turn grayish
dianthus-50% prune when fall blooming subsides
roses-50-70% prune Jan/Feb
Salvia-25-50% prune
I used to have hibiscus, which I pruned and covered. They never seemed to grow back too well, so I stopped planting them.
Covering with PLASTIC directly on the plant is supposedly a NO-No. The "experts" tell us first cloth then plastic. Why, I don't know but I know that I follow that advice and have never had a problem with burning or freezing. Also, why do you prune before a freeze? We are always told not to do this either. Don't prune until all danger of a freeze has passed, is what "they" say. Hibiscus is a tropical plant and I have them in the ground and all that ever happens to them is some nipping and you shouldn't prune until spring even tho they look bad. No one likes their gardens to look bad but the dead parts protect the living parts. We prune roses the first 2 wks. in Feb. That may be a little too early to prune Hibiscus - better to wait until Mar. at the earliest and then fertilize both the roses and Hibiscus w/a high number Nitrogen and low middle number - do NOT use a super phosphate on either. Hibiscus blooms on new growth so just a slight trim is all that is necessary to produce bloom. Most roses need to be heavily pruned in spring except for climbers which need to pruned after the first and sometimes only flush of bloom and then only to shape. Since Dallas is in Z 8a and I am in 8b the differences in the climate is only about 10-15*. If you soak your plants well before a freeze hits you protect the bush at its roots. After a frost or freeze do NOT water to get the frost off. It will break down the capillaries is what we are told. Up further north - way up there - they do prune drastically in the fall. Why they do I don't know but do know that my nephew up there lost my SIL's rose for her by doing that to her climbing rose. I think he may have made a mistake as he was also pruning to the ground an old clematis and just thought that all climbers needed to be drastically pruned. ??? This was in Green Bay. We don't grow lavender - at least not the real stuff so don't know about that but dianthus is planted in the fall here and if it gets nipped in the winter it should pick back up in early, early spring so when the temperature moderates you can lightly prune that and it will start blooming again until hot weather gets it.
Ann
vossner, well, I put the new Ixora (Ms_Merae gave it to me last spring) into a pot that I can easily bring inside. I learned my lesson!
Last year, I trimmed down the blue plumbegos before it froze and covered them with mulch. They both came back but one was eaten by pill bugs. The Mexican sage bush seemed like it may not have needed anything b/c they came back like gangbusters. I guess it is hard to kill Lantana?? I personally am not a fan of lantana, but DH loves it and so do the butterflies.
i do not have any hibiscus in the ground. They are all in pots to bring inside. It will be a jungle in our little sunroom.
I also have heard to never use plastic to cover plants unless you have cut them down to about 8" and covered with mulch and then plastic. But never cover a green plant with plastic. My hydrangea looked fine by covering with a cotton blanket so I'll try that again.
I'm not too sure about that rule about letting them freeze and not trim them until Feb. Maybe with some plants like Roses, etc, that works, but I do think that it helps some of the perennials to be trimmed down and insulated with mulch.
Debbie (dmj) grows Rangoon Creeper very successfully, and she said to trim down and mulch but I don't know when to do that??? Right before it freezes? I don't want to lose my Creeper!
All good info from all of you! Thanks!!
Michelle
I have lost my share of Ixora here as well. I love how they look but I am not reliable about covering my plants, that's why I don't have hibiscus even though I love them.
Hard to say about the creeper, I love mine too. Last year our winter was so mild, I think I lost a few leaves with one of the freezes. Mine has been in the ground 2 years so I am counting on it having a strong root system that will help it come back. If you mulch heavy that will help, would do it now. Some folks like to prune after the 1st freeze, but I have heard that's not always the best thing to do because those frozen parts some how protect the rest of the plant- go figure. Debbie is pretty right on w/ her growing info and tips.
Regarding roses in Houston, I pretty much follow the recommendations of the Lazy Gardner- prune heavily on or around Feb 14th and then prune again late August/early September for the fall blooming period. I fertilize my roses for the last time in the year w/ that last pruning and that last fertilizer I tend to over do it a bit and use a balanced fertilizer at that time. During the year I generally use a rose specific fertilizer- have to say I have never been disappointed in them.
Just for what it's worth, what I've heard is that unless it's going to be a sustained period of BELOW freezing, you don't need to worry too much about it. As in, if it freezes overnight but gets above freezing in the day, plants should be fine. That obviously won't work for delicate ones, but it seems to work for me for standard roses anyway. And I second the motion not to put plastic against plants.
I think you are right about damage related to sustained below freezing temps. I know that at the 1st part of winter I am really good about covering my plants but then as the winter progesses I tend to fall off the wagon and still nearly everything survives. Been a while since I really lost anything.
re: american beauty bush......zone 7a got down to 12 a few times last winter...I dont prune them at all , I don't use extra mulch on them, I probably have 50 plants and they take care of themselves like good natives.........
the tops die off on my hardy hibiscus (certainly not the tropicals) and they go dormant, but they come back up from the root in late spring.........you may want to prune the dead stems for looks, but it's not necessary and may even be a detriment because of the hollow stems
some perennials have hollow stems........when pruned water can collect inside stems and freeze resulting in loss of the plant.....lantana in this zone is a good example that is better left alone in winter
rated at 8 or above here need to be taken inside...
really? I thought I was supposted to cut it back after the first freeze. (lantana that is)
I never cut mine back until there is no more risk of freezing.
me neither. I cut mine early one time 'cause I couldn't stand the dead sticks, and they showed me: they never came back.
The only thing I prune at all in the fall (or throughout the year) are plants that get too big or leggy(roses). Otherwise I leave everything alone until March.
Hi Michelle,
I think that I read somewhere that beautyberry's are particular about trimming. You might want to look that up in PF and see if it is there that I read it. I won't be online long, or I would look it up for you. As far as the pentas go, you want to try an experiment and see if we can get them to come back next year. Maybe you try trimming and heavily mulching before freeze and I try mulching heavily and don't trim at all, or vice versa.....we can talk about it later. I would love to see mine come back and I think that you and I both have some pretty healthy pentas. We both planted ours early spring and they have had terrific growth, maybe just maybe, they have really good root system that we could save. This spring when I pulled my old ones up before planting the new babies, I saw roots in there that looked good to me.....So I am thinking that maybe they will come back if I could just be patient for them to do so.
Plumbago - I think I am going to mulch that whole bed I have with the plumbago, bat faced cupheas, shrimp plants, and regular cupheas all heavily with mulch without doing any trimming. There flowers are so pretty right now, I would hate to trim anything yet. I think some of that stuff willl come back and so I will just mulch it real good and keep my fingers crossed.
That is my plan sweetie. I hope you are doing well. Hugs.
Everything I read about lantana today said to wait until spring to cut back...it's one of the only plants (besides azaleas) that you should not cut back in the fall. I took down my cupheas today and it broke my heart (they're so beautiful)...so I did 15 cuttings and put them in the greenhouse to make myself feel better(lol). I always cut my plumbago back but I have mine in pots so that's easy to do and put in the greenhouse. I plan on taking up my Ixora and putting them in pots in the greenhouse too since they are so finicky. Good Luck!!
Its interesting that hear that lantana shouldn't be cut back in the fall or after a hard freeze that has zapped them. I can see not cutting them back in araes that don't freeze. I cut mine back every fall whether thay have had freeze damge or not. I cut them to about 3 inches from the ground so that the spring blooming bulbs and the larkspur seedlings tahat are coming up can emerge. I have done thius for years and years with the lantana never being harmed. In fact I am going out to whack them today.
Blue plumbago does fine without being mulched in my zone 8b. I cut it back about this time every fall whether it has been freeze damaged or not so that the oxalis I planted amongst them can emerge and grow. True, the dead stems will shelter the lower leaves from freezes, but they all come back wit full force in the spring. I don't think you can kill them if you wanted to do so.
I cover my some of my pink varieties and red varietiy of pentas with frost cloth securing the cloth with clothespins if I don't want them to sustain freeze damage. Others I let freeze down after heavily mulching the root bases. They return in the spring every year (when I have put out pill bug and slug kiiller so thattheir new temder leaves or not eaten). The purple and violet varieties do not return unless fully protected so I keep them in the greenhouse or just treat them as annuals.
Thanks Htop. It is so good to hear from you!! I took your suggestion from last year concerning my lantana and it did fine. So I did it again this year...cut it back and cover with mulch. My red penta was HUGE so I did cut it back to about 5" and covered it completely with mulch as well as with a cotton blanket. So far, it is still alive. My Pentas last year died b/c I did not much them enough and I did not cut it back. so trial and error...seeing what works best. My blue plumbago did come back well last year from cutting it back and mulching...so I've done that again this year. One of my plumbagos did begin to come back but died and I think the enormous amounts of pill bugs were under there eating its roots??? It had new green growth in the spring and then it died. The one next to it came back and was enormous.
I also covered an in-ground hibiscus with a cotton blanket to see if it would survive and it did...so far. My sunroom is a jungle with all the potted plants I had to bring in. I did not make the same mistake of leaving my Ixora out in the freeze like last year. I brought the Ixora inside this time! Last year...and it was DH's favorite plant...I let it out b/c I thought it would do okay in freezing weather...well DUH! It died.
Usually plumbagos, once established, don't have many problems. Did it put on lots of new growth and then died? The pill bugs love to eat the freah new leaves and stems that are first put out on perennials in the spring. If they eat all of the new leaves, the plant can die. They do feed on roots occassionally, but usually its the leaves that they go after. My red pentas always grows larger than my pinks. I bet you had a lot of butterflies visiting them. I am sure that your DH is happy that you brought his favorite plant inside. Ixora is such a beautiful plant. Whenb this past freeze came, I did not have time nor the energy to cover the plants I usually do with the frost cloth. I was really worried when the temp fell to 26 for a little while and then stayed at 28 for hours. It is really weird ... most of the plants did not sustain any freeze damage and the ones that did just had minor leaf burn. I had planted most of my angel trumpets in the ground in the summer. The ones close to the house received no damage and are still blooming. The leaves on ones in another flowerbed that has no protection from the wind or cold look like cooked spinach. I have all of them heavily mulched. I don't know whether to cut the stems of the ones with leaf burn back or not. I was thinking that I could wrap the stems with something now that the leaves are gone. The angel trumpets next to the house are huge and I am probably going to have to cut them back anyway eeven if they do not freeze.