The garden that never gets planted: How winter can help save your forgotten pots

They sit on the driveway, back porch, or, in my case, under a small tree near the house, still in their original containers. I have good intentions to plant them during the summer, but something always seems to come up.

In the past, I have said to myself, “No more plants until these are planted.” Or “I will have all the plants I purchased in the spring planted before the end of June.”

I have given up on this. I simply buy more than I can plant. At least I can admit to my problem.

When you have 5 acres of land, you can always find room for one more plant. The challenge is finding the time to plant it and maintain it. I keep saying, when I retire, I will have time. Retired people laugh when I say this.

Back in late November, I think it was the Monday night before Thanksgiving, I worked until after dark mulching these forgotten plants. The trees were covered with at least 20” of hardwood mulch, and the smaller plants still in flats were covered with about 6”.

Then it snowed and turned cold, and it has pretty much remained that way. With the extreme cold temperatures this past week, I was grateful for the snow cover serving as an additional mulch.

The purpose of the mulch is to prevent the roots in the containers from freezing. This is the big challenge with growing and overwintering ornamentals in containers. Roots can only take so much, and freezing temperatures may kill those that are sensitive to cold.

Plants in the ground are buffered or protected by the mass of soil surrounding them. Plants above ground have little soil to protect them. If you notice any nurseries in the surrounding areas, all their plants are either heavily mulched (usually trees and shrubs) or in greenhouses protected by plastic.

The downside to being in a greenhouse with plastic is that the greenhouse also has to be ventilated on warm sunny days. If it gets too hot, plant cells start to rev up for growth.

You can also drop larger pots in the ground to protect them; however, if you can dig a hole, you should go ahead and plant them. I have a large pile of wood chips, and sometimes bury larger plants in the pile. The goal is to insulate the root zone as much as possible.

I welcomed this recent snow as it provided additional insulation for these unplanted plants. One study indicates that with an air temperature of -14°F, and a 9” cover of snow, the temperature at ground level was 28°F.

The downside of snow cover that hangs around for a long period is animal problems. Rabbits eventually start looking for food and end up eating the bark from trees. Voles also feed on bark. A chicken wire fence or wrapping can help prevent this damage.