Growing Nicely

gardening, growing food, plants and flowers.

  • Home
  • About
  • Garden Writing
  • Garden Services
    • Planting Plans
    • Garden Consultation
  • The Blog
    • Sustainable Gardening
    • Growing Food
    • Gardening & Plants
    • Garden Design
    • Garden Visits
  • Contact Me

Tuck-up tender plants for winter

December 15, 2014 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

Much as I like spending time in the garden, having a whole range of demanding plants that need a lot of attention is a real chore, but a few of them to spice up your garden and stop it looking dull is what’s needed to make a garden interesting.

Dahlias fall into the ‘spice up your garden’ category for me. The job of digging them up at the end of the year is a small price to pay for their endless supply of colourful flowers.

Tuck-up tender plants for winter-dahlia flower,

Then there are the plants that are too big to dig up and store, but not tough enough to stay outside without a protective coat, like tree ferns, bananas and palms.

Tree ferns, frost protection,

Tree ferns.

There are a whole variety of materials, but essentially a thick coat of straw or bubble-wrap covered in horticultural-fleece or hessian is what’s needed.

winter plant protection-hessian

Tender plants protected with hessian.

 

winter plant protection-straw

Tender banana plants covered with straw held in place by wire.

winter plant protection fleece

A thick layer of straw and horticultural fleece protects tender plants.

As well as being practical, I like it to look good too, especially if it’s in view  from inside the house. A covering of green hessian over white plastic or fleece tones the whole thing down and looks more natural, and maybe use strong, natural string rather than orange baler twine?

plant protection-hessian green

Tips to minimise frost damage to tender plants:

  • Site tender plants near a wall or in a courtyard.
  • Cold air and frost lurk about in the lowest part of a garden, so avoid these places for tender plants.
  • Leave old growth on tender plants through the winter for a bit of added protection.

Read all about how to grow dahlias here.

Happy gardening.

Jill

all images: Jill Anderson

Related posts:

blue delphineum flowersLet me introduce you to a pretty combination of plants Eucomis bicolor plant-www.growingnicely.co.ukEucomis bicolor, a must have plant how to plant a tree, apple trees at the allotmentHow to plant a tree Feed garden birds with style

Related posts:

blue delphineum flowersLet me introduce you to a pretty combination of plants Eucomis bicolor plant-www.growingnicely.co.ukEucomis bicolor, a must have plant how to plant a tree, apple trees at the allotmentHow to plant a tree Feed garden birds with style
Filed Under: Blog, Gardening Tagged With: frost protection for tender plants, over-wintering tender plants

Never Miss A Post

Subscribe for updates to be delivered straight to your inbox.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

plants-gardens-growing-eating

Jill-profile image

Hello, I’m Jill Anderson.
This is where you’ll find good, solid information about gardening, growing fruit & vegetables and how to keep it all looking good.
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
Follow on Instagram

Don't miss any posts!

Enter your email address and receive notifications of new posts.

Archive

Copyright © 2019 Growing Nicely | Privacy Policy

Please note this website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent for cookies to be used. For further information on use of cookies please refer to our privacy policy Find out more.