Very important advice George. Using Bamboos, Fatsias and Evergreens such as Griselina can help create a Microclimate to block out cold/frost. There's also tropical look a likes that can handle deep cold, like Pieris Japonica and the Camellia Japonica along with Aucuba Japonica non variegated for its houseplant like leaves. Thanks George.
That's very true and what I hope my garden will have over time, a mini shelter belt of bamboo, a few trees and taller palms to enclose it a bit more and trap a tiny bit more heat in. You're definitely right when it comes to exotic looking evergreens and those are some great suggestions thanks, you could certainly have a whole garden that looked exotic or tropical with absolutely minimal winter issues at all.
It's definitely a case of fine margins and every little helps isn't it. It's amazing how just keeping plants under cover raises the temperature significantly, prevents the frost and also water-related damage. Hopefully you haven't lost much this winter!
Surprisingly the two scheffleras have survived well here (alpina and Taiwaniana) despite being dumped hopefully in the ground when small, sheer luck rather than judgement on my part😂. Sound advice as always George. Great video. Following last year I'm winter,protecting most things this year just like my first ever winter growing a tropical style garden. I've lost my bottle after last winter😂
Thanks and apologies for the delayed reply! You should know by now, if it works you definitely put it down to good gardening and not luck haha! I don't blame you for changing your practices - I've tried incrementally improving my banana protection by packing the whole plant with fleece and putting a fleece bag over it. It's obviously going to be a game of how cold it gets and for how long but you certainly learn to evolve your protection strategy don't you, leaving some plants to it and protecting others more. Fingers crossed it's a kinder one!
Left my potted banana outside unprotected - it went soft and soggy and I was convinced it was dead. Came back better than ever in June. The only losses, surprisingly, were all my big hebes, which I've had for decades!
Nice one on the banana Kay, that's definitely an impressive comeback for a potted plant! Sorry to hear about your hebes, it seems like some plants really don't like a certain duration of cold or cold combined with humidity rather than just the absolute minimums reached. Hopefully this winter is a kinder one!
Tree fern to protect. It’ll be the first winter in the garden. Gunnera to protect still, better crack on with that. Ensete is in my cupboard, put away for the winter. Musa basjoo to be wrapped, as is staying outside. Trachycarpus was happy over last winter. All good. Colocasia I’ve brought in as a house plant. Paulowina tree about 7ft, it’s happy. I’ve collected my ricinus seeds for next year. Adding plants bit by bit. Thought I’d go slow with building up plant collection and variety over time, as can be expensive. It’d be devastating to spend loads of money all at once to find I’d lost everything over winter! Feeling ‘on top’ of caring for what I have already and more confident with looking after them. Looking to expand collection next year! Can’t wait until frosts are behind us next year! It all looked stunning this summer! Brings such joy! Thanks George!
Nice one Melanie, it sounds like you're both organised and prepared which is great! I completely hear you about building up a collection over time, it's not just the money but it allows the plant choices to develop in line with your changing tastes, increasing knowledge and experiences with the weather. You can definitely have the look without too many risks and it certainly sounds like you've done a great job with your choices and care. I do enjoy crisp winter days and seeing the frost and snow, but yes, from a growing point of view you can't help but look forward to late next spring! Good luck with all your overwintering and plans for next year.
Growing Schefflera Alpina here George, it's a few years old and came through last winter ok. I haven't featured it on my Instagram posts yet so you won't have seen it, but it's a good 6 or 7 foot but still in a pot. This makes it easier to move it to a position for maximum warmth and shelter against the house, as I have no greenhouse or polytunnel. It doesn't like frosts and it hated the heat last summer, but with intermittent fleecing it came through last winter fine. It's sub zero tonight so the fleece is back on here in frosty West Midlands 😊 good luck with all your overwintering this time around!
Thanks Paul and great to hear your Schefflera alpina is growing well. I don't blame you for wanting to keep it protected better and I hope it sailed through this last cold spell without issue.
Great Vid as always George... tonight is our first frost down south, been out with the torch, covering up with fleece best I can, this is deffo a first for me!!! worrying about protecting plants in my garden from frost...
Great tips as always George. Although ponds and in ground water features add quite an edge as far as protection. Last winter, I lost a Musa ‘Dwarf Orinoco’ I might’ve taken off the coldframe too early. I’m wondering if I can get away with trachycarpus in my garden, much less some of these amazing palms or tree Ferns that can be hardy in the UK. it’s also interesting that geese sound different in the UK than they do in America.
Thanks and good point about the residual temperature of water. It's gutting to lose something that late on isn't it, I had the same with an Ensete I planted out too early and it just rotted away but lesson learnt! What minimum temperatures do you generally get? Tree ferns aren't bulletproof hardy but Trachycarpus are definitely reliable here. As for the geese, I'm not 100% sure but I think most of the geese near here will be Greylag geese rather than Canadian (there's a few quarry lakes a mile or so away) but I'll have to check some time.
By way of accidental experiment; My Musa nagensium banana, which was a graceful 2.5m tall beauty last year, had come with a label suggesting it could cope with -5°C, yet, despite a mild-ish winter, during which it was also protected with a heavy mulch and a well fleeced wigwam, barely survived, returning as a weak, barely 30cm tall "specimen" When preparing it for this winter, having removed it 5 small leaves, I used an even heavier layer of shredder chippings, with bricks to stop birds etc dislodging it and capped the straw filled tunnel of fleece with a pot. But... what I also did, just before funnelling straw around the stem, was to begin by building up a layer of left-over bark chipping, i.e. the type with the really large chunky bits. I had noticed the air gaps between, and wanting to be rid of the bag, so I decided to try it.
Yeah, hardiness labels aren't an exact science are they and as you've found with your banana there's definitely a sliding scale of how much cold plants can take and bounce back quickly from. Thanks for letting me know about your current experiment and I'd also hope that the extra insulation and bark chippings will really help keep the cold out. Let me know how you get on!
It'll be quite a wait. Another experiment I did might turn out to be a gigantic mistake. Several weeks ago, when autumn was dryly setting in, I cleaned out the hens bedding, removing their larger pooh from buckwheat hulls/husks bedding. I then used the hulls as a really thick mulch around the ginger growing in a tall pot. last year, I had used garden chippings.. Only a couple a weeks ago, during a momentary pause in the constant rain, the foliage finally died down and when I pulled it out, realised I had created a swamp-like mulch. I've topped up with chipping again, but have to also wait and see how the ginger, crocus and Amorphophallus Konjac in that pot will cope with a long winter of water-absorbing husks, seasoned with traces of chicken chit. @@GeorgesJungleGarden
Oh definitely. Fingers crossed your mulch works well too. Whilst an ideal mulch wouldn't necessarily retain water I imagine it'll do the job of protecting the rhizomes etc regardless. Fingers crossed for you!
sound advice, I lost quite a few plants last winter even with lots of protection. There is not much that you can do, if you have many ice days in a row, and -12 at night and your growing plants that can only take-6 or -8. its a lesson learnt for me. if it cant take -10 im not buying it . I think i had 28 days of -6 to -12 thank god i hadn't gone to mad with the half hardy expensive plants lost £900 of palms and about £500 of other plants but i got to enjoy them for 2 years . My losses work out at £13 a week so its not that bad really for a hobby if i was going to a club, smoking or drinking everyday id be throwing more money away a week .😃 that's my way of justifying it😂
I hear you Shane and that's similar to where I'm headed to with my garden for a while at least. You do have to rationalise the chance of a very cold winter but I think your plan of -10 is a sound one - particularly in your frozen tundra! Other than my Butiagrus I'm staying away from the more borderline plants too and anything like Agaves etc have to be the toughest examples. It's gutting when you lose something but I appreciate your way of justifying it and can tell there's been a lot of thought gone into it! It's funny how us exotic plant growers always end up comparing it to other expensive hobbies / lifestyle choices in our attempts to justify it to others (/mainly ourselves) haha!
Hi George I have wintered my ensette and put it under the stairs in my hall it is dark and cool . I have just checked it and it is still growing in fact I had a job getting it out . Will it stop and do I cut off the new leaves? When I wintered it I took it out of its pot and removed all the soil and dried it, then put an old towel around the roots ball and put it in a bucket. Much appreciate any help you can give? Thanks Les
Hi Les, no problem, they can take a while to slow down. Just chop the leaves back and you'll find it'll slow down over the coming weeks as it gets drier. Good luck with it!
Nice one, gives me hope for the smaller one I'm growing on then! Whilst our location does have good soil, we do seem to get hit by those freezing fogs when it's cold so I guess that's not great for increasing humidity but if I was going to plant one out again I'd grow it closer to the house where there's extra shelter.
@@GeorgesJungleGarden I don't think cold is a problem for them, but any sort of moisture is a problem. My shelter has a big over hang and sides, but gaps here and there to let air move through. It worked last year and surely this winter won't be as bad 🤔🤞😕
I have a ferox that survived last winter as well, I just drag mine into my garden room which is open at one side so pretty much just acts like a really good shelter. Don't think it enjoyed last winter but looks great again now and grows really fast
what about some cheap gazeebos George .the ones with the adjustable thin frames so we could drop the gazeebo down to just over the height of the plants then wrap the fleece all round the frame !! do you think that would work ???? thx for another helpfull winter guide ,take care buddy
They could definitely work if you were protecting an area of plants that all required wrapping, it just depends on how you want your garden to look in winter, whether you could weigh them down enough and if they're worth the cost and space requirements. There's plenty of room for ingenuity though and I appreciate the idea! All the best to you too, thanks!
Very important advice George. Using Bamboos, Fatsias and Evergreens such as Griselina can help create a Microclimate to block out cold/frost. There's also tropical look a likes that can handle deep cold, like Pieris Japonica and the Camellia Japonica along with Aucuba Japonica non variegated for its houseplant like leaves. Thanks George.
Love the idea of creating a micro-climate
That's very true and what I hope my garden will have over time, a mini shelter belt of bamboo, a few trees and taller palms to enclose it a bit more and trap a tiny bit more heat in. You're definitely right when it comes to exotic looking evergreens and those are some great suggestions thanks, you could certainly have a whole garden that looked exotic or tropical with absolutely minimal winter issues at all.
It's definitely a great idea if you have the space and the perfect excuse to have some more cool evergreens to look at in winter!
One thing I have found helpful is to take tropicals that are at risk under cover and to light tea lights every 12-24 hours during cold snaps.
It's definitely a case of fine margins and every little helps isn't it. It's amazing how just keeping plants under cover raises the temperature significantly, prevents the frost and also water-related damage. Hopefully you haven't lost much this winter!
I liked a lot the tip about keeping them in pots while small for easy indoor overwintering. 🙌🙌
Thanks, happy to help!
Yes I have dug some of my smaller bananas up this year just in case we get a winter as cold as last winter 😊
Good shout, if they're small that's not a bad idea. Fingers crossed we don't though!
Great video as always George 👍
Thank you very much John!
Surprisingly the two scheffleras have survived well here (alpina and Taiwaniana) despite being dumped hopefully in the ground when small, sheer luck rather than judgement on my part😂. Sound advice as always George. Great video. Following last year I'm winter,protecting most things this year just like my first ever winter growing a tropical style garden. I've lost my bottle after last winter😂
Thanks and apologies for the delayed reply! You should know by now, if it works you definitely put it down to good gardening and not luck haha! I don't blame you for changing your practices - I've tried incrementally improving my banana protection by packing the whole plant with fleece and putting a fleece bag over it. It's obviously going to be a game of how cold it gets and for how long but you certainly learn to evolve your protection strategy don't you, leaving some plants to it and protecting others more. Fingers crossed it's a kinder one!
@GeorgesJungleGarden 🤣. I spoke too soon re the alpina. It looks shocking today after the frosty period.....that'll teach me to look glass half full 🤣
@@vincenzecalzone8666 Ahhh, has it bounced back OK?
@@GeorgesJungleGarden Still looking shabby. It'll survive but not thrive I suspect
Left my potted banana outside unprotected - it went soft and soggy and I was convinced it was dead. Came back better than ever in June. The only losses, surprisingly, were all my big hebes, which I've had for decades!
Nice one on the banana Kay, that's definitely an impressive comeback for a potted plant! Sorry to hear about your hebes, it seems like some plants really don't like a certain duration of cold or cold combined with humidity rather than just the absolute minimums reached. Hopefully this winter is a kinder one!
Tree fern to protect. It’ll be the first winter in the garden. Gunnera to protect still, better crack on with that. Ensete is in my cupboard, put away for the winter. Musa basjoo to be wrapped, as is staying outside. Trachycarpus was happy over last winter. All good. Colocasia I’ve brought in as a house plant. Paulowina tree about 7ft, it’s happy. I’ve collected my ricinus seeds for next year. Adding plants bit by bit. Thought I’d go slow with building up plant collection and variety over time, as can be expensive. It’d be devastating to spend loads of money all at once to find I’d lost everything over winter! Feeling ‘on top’ of caring for what I have already and more confident with looking after them. Looking to expand collection next year! Can’t wait until frosts are behind us next year!
It all looked stunning this summer! Brings such joy!
Thanks George!
Nice one Melanie, it sounds like you're both organised and prepared which is great! I completely hear you about building up a collection over time, it's not just the money but it allows the plant choices to develop in line with your changing tastes, increasing knowledge and experiences with the weather. You can definitely have the look without too many risks and it certainly sounds like you've done a great job with your choices and care. I do enjoy crisp winter days and seeing the frost and snow, but yes, from a growing point of view you can't help but look forward to late next spring! Good luck with all your overwintering and plans for next year.
Growing Schefflera Alpina here George, it's a few years old and came through last winter ok. I haven't featured it on my Instagram posts yet so you won't have seen it, but it's a good 6 or 7 foot but still in a pot. This makes it easier to move it to a position for maximum warmth and shelter against the house, as I have no greenhouse or polytunnel. It doesn't like frosts and it hated the heat last summer, but with intermittent fleecing it came through last winter fine. It's sub zero tonight so the fleece is back on here in frosty West Midlands 😊 good luck with all your overwintering this time around!
Thanks Paul and great to hear your Schefflera alpina is growing well. I don't blame you for wanting to keep it protected better and I hope it sailed through this last cold spell without issue.
Great video
Thank you very much!
Great Vid as always George... tonight is our first frost down south, been out with the torch, covering up with fleece best I can, this is deffo a first for me!!! worrying about protecting plants in my garden from frost...
Thanks Mark and apologies for the delayed reply - I hope you got on OK! Fingers crossed there aren't too many subzero blasts this winter.
Great advice George. We lost a couple of small tree ferns in London last year.
Thanks Cindy and sorry to hear that, it was a rough start to winter. Hopefully this one is kinder!
I youse sleeping bags quick and easy helps a lot iv found
Good shout, they're definitely what I'd use to protect the tree ferns if there was a ridiculous cold spell forecast!
Great tips as always George. Although ponds and in ground water features add quite an edge as far as protection. Last winter, I lost a Musa ‘Dwarf Orinoco’ I might’ve taken off the coldframe too early. I’m wondering if I can get away with trachycarpus in my garden, much less some of these amazing palms or tree Ferns that can be hardy in the UK. it’s also interesting that geese sound different in the UK than they do in America.
Thanks and good point about the residual temperature of water. It's gutting to lose something that late on isn't it, I had the same with an Ensete I planted out too early and it just rotted away but lesson learnt! What minimum temperatures do you generally get? Tree ferns aren't bulletproof hardy but Trachycarpus are definitely reliable here. As for the geese, I'm not 100% sure but I think most of the geese near here will be Greylag geese rather than Canadian (there's a few quarry lakes a mile or so away) but I'll have to check some time.
By way of accidental experiment;
My Musa nagensium banana, which was a graceful 2.5m tall beauty last year, had come with a label suggesting it could cope with -5°C, yet, despite a mild-ish winter, during which it was also protected with a heavy mulch and a well fleeced wigwam, barely survived, returning as a weak, barely 30cm tall "specimen"
When preparing it for this winter, having removed it 5 small leaves, I used an even heavier layer of shredder chippings, with bricks to stop birds etc dislodging it and capped the straw filled tunnel of fleece with a pot.
But... what I also did, just before funnelling straw around the stem, was to begin by building up a layer of left-over bark chipping, i.e. the type with the really large chunky bits. I had noticed the air gaps between, and wanting to be rid of the bag, so I decided to try it.
Yeah, hardiness labels aren't an exact science are they and as you've found with your banana there's definitely a sliding scale of how much cold plants can take and bounce back quickly from. Thanks for letting me know about your current experiment and I'd also hope that the extra insulation and bark chippings will really help keep the cold out. Let me know how you get on!
It'll be quite a wait.
Another experiment I did might turn out to be a gigantic mistake. Several weeks ago, when autumn was dryly setting in, I cleaned out the hens bedding, removing their larger pooh from buckwheat hulls/husks bedding. I then used the hulls as a really thick mulch around the ginger growing in a tall pot. last year, I had used garden chippings..
Only a couple a weeks ago, during a momentary pause in the constant rain, the foliage finally died down and when I pulled it out, realised I had created a swamp-like mulch. I've topped up with chipping again, but have to also wait and see how the ginger, crocus and Amorphophallus Konjac in that pot will cope with a long winter of water-absorbing husks, seasoned with traces of chicken chit. @@GeorgesJungleGarden
Oh definitely. Fingers crossed your mulch works well too. Whilst an ideal mulch wouldn't necessarily retain water I imagine it'll do the job of protecting the rhizomes etc regardless. Fingers crossed for you!
sound advice, I lost quite a few plants last winter even with lots of protection. There is not much that you can do, if you have many ice days in a row, and -12 at night and your growing plants that can only take-6 or -8. its a lesson learnt for me. if it cant take -10 im not buying it .
I think i had 28 days of -6 to -12 thank god i hadn't gone to mad with the half hardy expensive plants lost £900 of palms and about £500 of other plants but i got to enjoy them for 2 years . My losses work out at £13 a week so its not that bad really for a hobby if i was going to a club, smoking or drinking everyday id be throwing more money away a week .😃 that's my way of justifying it😂
I hear you Shane and that's similar to where I'm headed to with my garden for a while at least. You do have to rationalise the chance of a very cold winter but I think your plan of -10 is a sound one - particularly in your frozen tundra! Other than my Butiagrus I'm staying away from the more borderline plants too and anything like Agaves etc have to be the toughest examples. It's gutting when you lose something but I appreciate your way of justifying it and can tell there's been a lot of thought gone into it! It's funny how us exotic plant growers always end up comparing it to other expensive hobbies / lifestyle choices in our attempts to justify it to others (/mainly ourselves) haha!
Hi George I have wintered my ensette and put it under the stairs in my hall it is dark and cool . I have just checked it and it is still growing in fact I had a job getting it out . Will it stop and do I cut off the new leaves? When I wintered it I took it out of its pot and removed all the soil and dried it, then put an old towel around the roots ball and put it in a bucket.
Much appreciate any help you can give?
Thanks
Les
Hi Les, no problem, they can take a while to slow down. Just chop the leaves back and you'll find it'll slow down over the coming weeks as it gets drier. Good luck with it!
My ferox survived in Yorkshire with an over head shelter
Nice one, gives me hope for the smaller one I'm growing on then! Whilst our location does have good soil, we do seem to get hit by those freezing fogs when it's cold so I guess that's not great for increasing humidity but if I was going to plant one out again I'd grow it closer to the house where there's extra shelter.
@@GeorgesJungleGarden I don't think cold is a problem for them, but any sort of moisture is a problem. My shelter has a big over hang and sides, but gaps here and there to let air move through. It worked last year and surely this winter won't be as bad 🤔🤞😕
Yes, I'd agree there and good work. Fingers crossed indeed!
I have a ferox that survived last winter as well, I just drag mine into my garden room which is open at one side so pretty much just acts like a really good shelter. Don't think it enjoyed last winter but looks great again now and grows really fast
Oh and meant to say I'm in hull
what about some cheap gazeebos George .the ones with the adjustable thin frames so we could drop the gazeebo down to just over the height of the plants then wrap the fleece all round the frame !! do you think that would work ???? thx for another helpfull winter guide ,take care buddy
They could definitely work if you were protecting an area of plants that all required wrapping, it just depends on how you want your garden to look in winter, whether you could weigh them down enough and if they're worth the cost and space requirements. There's plenty of room for ingenuity though and I appreciate the idea! All the best to you too, thanks!