Getting packed up

[Chrisg]

I know David M has not been well, so to help with his recovery, I thought I would give him something to to really get his teeth into. Yes I have started putting the plants away for winter.

We are about to start on an extension, and the builders are going to trash the front and back garden, so it has been on hold with all the plants in pots.


succulent-deck

It is still warm enough not to have to worry about the plants, but I have found that getting the plants totally dry in time for the first frosts is the key to getting them through lower temperatures than they should be able to cope with. I don't have any heated protection in the garden, so the fragile plants will be brought into the house. The remaining plants will be split between two cold frames, and a greenhouse (which colder than the cold frames). The warmest cold frame contains the aloes, echeverias and a few of the slower growing agaves. This is my collection of agave utahensis


agave-utahensis-group


coldframe1-01

The second cold frame, contains the overflow and those that don't need as much protection, I want to keep them in as good a condition as possible and the cold frames give them a real kick start come spring.


coldframe2-02

Sadly there are still a large number of plants still to go, the green house currently contains the very fragile plants which will be moved into the house, once that is cleared the last plants can be moved into the free space.


coldframe2-01

The summer has been great for succulents, the aloes and echeverias especially have flowered better than ever and we are now into the winter flowering group. this echeveria black prince will continue to into January. Even left out unprotected, it is only snow that stop it.


echeveria-black-prince-spt13

So anyone else in the early protect camp?

[Mark]

I normally cut all the Bananas in half at the start of Oct so it gives them a little time to adjust to the polytunnel...this year is going to be different though and I am simply not going to heat the tunnel :shock:

[Chrisg]

I am guessing there will be a few people cutting back this year after the last few winters. You have been changing over to more hardy plants over the last few years haven't you?

[Mark]

I have been yes, but now I have lost complete interest in it all :( Its slowly been happening over the past couple of years and now I just cant be bothered with it all. I find even walking down the polytunnel to water a chore that I could do with out. Yet 10 years ago I would spend hours surfing the net trying to track down plants and beg seller to sent them to the UK for me. I intend to sell a few bits and give the rest away 8-)

[Ade Shattock]

Good to be prepared Chris.
In any other year I would have laughed at getting stuff away so early but Ive changed camps, I started with a couple of my biggish Citrus plants into the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago and Im very slowly doing the odd bit here and there.
Ive taken on an allotment now so my time is going to be divided and I dont want to be panicing getting well into November.
Im going to let a hell of a lot take its chances this year, I have way too much stuff and I want to start reclaiming some of the garden to open space again.
Some things I'll get on eBay and I will have to start with those very soon.
Next year Im hoping to fell a double Trachycarpus fortunei thats a good 3m on each trunk and another fortunei of similar size that for some unknown reason has decided to stop growing and to turn up its toes.

I need to get up my shelters to protect the big Agave americana and the smaller medio pictas and others planted out, also get the shelter built for my Phoenix canariensis x roebelenii and get the heat cables out for my big Butia odorata but the rest will take its chances with just very minor protection such as tying leaves up, Im done with having a garden full of shelters looking terrible, been there, done that.

I have some big Chamearops that will come out in the Spring as I have plans for a bigger Koi pond, that means removing a load of Gingers, Cordylines and all sorts so the garden could (if I get around to it) look a whole load different next year.

With my heavy clay soil its near on impossible to get big palms (well any palms) out with a decent rootball so they'll probably get cut down and treated with root out.
I lifted a small Trachycarpus princeps a few weeks back that had been in for 3 years and that put up a huge fight, in the end I all but ripped it out with not a lot of root left but its potted now and a good experiment to see how they get on with a lot of root disturbance.

We are also looking at a possible move in 5 years when the place is paid off and as much as we might like gardens such as mine they arent everyones cup of tea sop I need to be thinking of that.

[Chrisg]

Ade, sounds like you are having a major revamp next year. Is going to be fun.

I tend to pack up really early simply to dry stuff out, I know for the last few years I have lost a lot less than other succulent people I think because of this. I tend to keep an eye out on the forecast and look for the first large amount of rain in Oct and get everything undercover for then. It will be interesting to see once everything (or more) is planted i I am as organised.

[JohnJearrard]

I haven't started to put things away yet, but I have gathered all the tender things together so that I can do it in a hurry if I need to!

[LONGK]

Very much in getting ready mode. Tender bulbs (mostly sunk in placcy pots) are being lifted and dried, power into the g/house for heating now and the g/house itself is almost bubble wrapped up now. Space in the shed for tender shrubs is ready. The coldframe will be getting the horse poo buried under it next week and has a new three layer poly carb lid made. Several new Salvia species seedlings are getting acclimatised to the g/house already.
Best of all though, I have several Lachenalia species coming along from seed, a couple of Ferraria species, and a few other winter growers to keep the interest going in the g/house.

I have been yes, but now I have lost complete interest in it all :( Its slowly been happening over the past couple of years and now I just cant be bothered with it all. I find even walking down the polytunnel to water a chore that I could do with out. Yet 10 years ago I would spend hours surfing the net trying to track down plants and beg seller to sent them to the UK for me. I intend to sell a few bits and give the rest away 8-)

Booger me! Not sure what to say to that.
From a personal point of view (as a sufferer of depression) and please understand that I'm not making any assumptions about your circumstances Mark, I tend to retreat into my plants and myself when I get down so I could not conceive of such an act. I'm getting rather hacked off with the UK winters though, which (in conjunction with my house move last year) is seeing a change in direction as to the plants that I take on.

[David Matzdorf]

I never protect anything anymore and I haven't done for several years. If there's an unexpected early frost before I can haul tender plants in, I chuck a sheet or a blanket over the susceptible species.

Any plants that can't cope with a London Winter live in pots and come indoors, but only when severe frost is on the forecast and then most of them, except the succulents that dislike Winter wet, go directly out again as soon as the severe frosts abate. I leave everything else out all Winter to fend for itself. Nothing comes indoors for light frosts.

I would never dig anything up for Winter and then plant it out again in Spring. For me, doing this defeats the object of growing it in the ground. The only exception is the Brugmansias, but they're in pots sunk into the soil, so they just get wrenched up and pruned back enough to get them through my front door.

The main debate is what to do with some varieties of Hedychium. H. gardnerianum and H. 'Devon Cream' are perfectly hardy here, but they won't flower if they get cut down by frost and have to start again from the base.

I don't fuss too much if my plants get cosmetic damage. They soon grow out of it.

At present, my main difficulty is that I can't lift or carry anything for another month - if we have an unexpected early, sharp frost, I won't be able to do anything about it. So far, there's nothing remotely like frost in the forecast and I never take any action to protect or move anything until there is.

[Mark]

Booger me! Not sure what to say to that.
From a personal point of view (as a sufferer of depression) and please understand that I'm not making any assumptions about your circumstances Mark, I tend to retreat into my plants and myself when I get down so I could not conceive of such an act. I'm getting rather hacked off with the UK winters though, which (in conjunction with my house move last year) is seeing a change in direction as to the plants that I take on.

Oh I am not depressed :D I just simply got fed up with the battle against greenfly, spider mites, weevils,mealy bugs plus the scorching heat then the freezing cold with the odd hosepipe ban thrown in . I gave it a good old go for many years and I would hate to think how much money I have spent over that time. I still like to see the tropical garden pictures on here of what you are all growing.

Any way rediscovering Fishing takes my spare time ( and money) now

I will still have the odd trip to kew until my membership expires and I will still sneak into wisley :shock: now and again.Also my own garden will still need tending so I wont be letting go for good ( fingers crossed)