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After last year's disaster, I'm determined not to be caught on the hop again. I have bought a big roll of horticultural fleece. But what do I do with it?
It seems to me to be logical that I cover the plant and tag it into the soil; but some of the photos show it tied round the stalk.
So far, I'm trying to save rosemary (PLEASE don't tell me you don't have a problem over winter; I am yet to get one to last from one year into next and it's not for want of trying), a white camellia and some lavendar.
I can't make up my mind about clematis and wisteria- the wisteria was only planted last year, and it did reasonably in greenery, but was so badly damaged by the snow, I thought I'd lost it; but it hung on. It's not topping the arch I built for it. If I did try to protect it, how would I do that?
When thou seest an eagle, thou seest a portion of genius; lift up thy head!
I had problems and over the last 2 winters when I lost such a lot of shrubs. This is mainly because apart from the boundary hedges and a couple of artificial beds, all my planting is in pots - and there are a lot of them. I have been advised to get the bag fleeces that fit nicely over the bush, then tie them half way down the pot. I do not want a repeat of the last 2 winters. I think I personally kept the garden centre in business each spring!!
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
Hi AQ, I tie it around my citrus that are in pots and let the surplus drape over the pot. For the rosemary I would peg it somehow. Is your camellia in a pot or the ground? the problem I had was the weight of snow along with the weight of bud caused my big plant to split. If in a pot wrap the container with sacking to help stop it freezing and I would probably also protect the wisteria - straw and sacking around the base and fleece the top growth to protect the buds a bit from frost.
Caroline in Jersey
Cin J
camellia's in the ground.
sorry, there's something wrong with the posting. Damn! It's doing it again. I can't put in a a paragraph break. I'm not sure how to protect the tips of a wisteria which is velcro'ed to the support
AQ, the wisteria should be hardy but I would be concerned about frost nipping young buds. Is there any way you could wrap it on the arch with fleece- not sure what your winds are like - we can get some strong blasts here which is why i truss stuff up.
How hard does your ground freeze?
Hi Quine
The fleece you have seen tied will probably be fleece bags, these are just bags made from fleece with a draw sting around the bottom, they are ideal for slipping over plants and securing around the stem. With fleece on a roll, cut it to the length needed to cover your plant and secure with clothes pegs. Watch for the build up of snow on fleeced plants, the weight could damage the plants far more than the cold.
Your Rosemary may be struggling with the soil being too wet over winter rather than the cold. It needs very well drained soil. Try putting a couple of inches of gravel in the ground before you plant it.
Your wisteria should be fine over winter, the time to watch it is in the spring when the buds are forming, a late, hard frost can damage these. If it looks like there will be a late frost, cover your plant with fleece.
Build it and they will come.
That's incredible helpful all of you. I have a new planter bittie round my deck which is half gravel before the soil was put on top and the new and (so far) robust rosemary is in there, so I have hopes. I'll take some photos when there's light an no rain. Am I the only one having paragraph problems?
AQ, I get a problem if I just use the reply box. I have to sometimes hit return twice to get a new line I also noticed that if the cursor is half size on a post I am writing the photos and text do not appear. It seems OK if I use rich formatting.
TVM
Hi All,
Don't know if it helps but when I overwinter my bananas I follow this routine....
Make a cylinder shape out of some chicken wire which is 6" or so bigger than the plant, put this over the plant secure it using garden canes, fill the 6" gap between cage and plant with straw. I then wrap two layers of fleece around this and finally a layer of bubble wrap secured with clear gaffer tape. The bubble wrap keeps the fleece dry. The important thing is make sure the plant is dry before doing this otherwise it will just rot and secondly you need to cut slits in the bubble wrap to stop condensation forming on sunny days.
Alternatively this year I have also taken a dozen cuttings or so and will attempt to overwinter them in the greenhouse....
Hope this helps....