Preparing Outdoor Potted Plants For Winter

Even plants that are hardy to your zone can be hit hard when planted in a container in the winter.

Preparing outdoor potted plants for winter.

In all other areas cut back on watering to help plants harden off in preparation for winter. The biggest challenge though is guarding against root damage caused by rapidly fluctuating temperatures. On perennials that have finished for the season cut back stems to 6 to 8 inches from the ground. Winter container gardening is tough you have to protect plants from wind harsh sunlight and drying out.

But many perennial plants such as roses and hibiscus also can be grown outdoors in containers and kept alive through winter. Hardy cyclamen cyclamen hederifolium and cyclamen coum are neat free flowering plants perfect for growing at the base of trees and shrubs or naturalising in grass they work well in winter pot displays and can be planted into the garden after they have flowered. Outdoor container gardens usually involve annual plant species that are simply discarded in the late fall and replaced with new plants in the spring. In dry winter areas that don t freeze or have little snow water perennials once a month to keep them alive and healthy.

But with that said winter care is pretty simple and straightforward as long as you bring them in out of harms way. Potted strawberry plants are a bit more susceptible to the freezing temperatures of winter than those planted in the ground.