Winterize Your Potted Plants

If you put a lot of time and effort into your potted plants during the year, it can be hard to watch them fade away as fall gradually turns into winter. Fortunately, in some situations, you can winterize those potted plants and help them make it through safely to next spring. In this article, we’d like to take a closer look at this process and how you might winterize potted plants. 

At TLC, we are proud to serve the Jackson, WY area with expert landscaping and maintenance services. Whatever kind of help you may need on your Jackson property, there is a good chance we can be of assistance. Reach out today to learn more. 

A Race Against Time

As a Jackson resident, you know that winter can arrive in a hurry in this part of the country. One week, we enjoy mild, comfortable temperatures – and the next week those temperatures dive and the overnight lows will drop well below freezing. Of course, you can never know for sure when that first cold snap is going to arrive, although you can monitor the weather forecast to get a bit of warning. 

With that in mind, if you have any potted plants that you want to winterize, you need to start thinking about this task well in advance. Depending on the hardiness of the plants in question, it might be too late if you leave them outside when the first freezing temperatures arrive. Even if your plants are tough enough to deal with some cold weather, letting it get too far into fall before taking winterizing steps will dramatically reduce your chances of success. 

Understanding the Challenge

Potted plants present a specific challenge during the winter months because the roots are not down in the ground. Instead, the roots are in the container, which is above ground level, and they will not be insulated from changing temperatures as a result. This can be mitigated somewhat by using a larger pot than you would normally pick for a given plant, but that might not be enough to keep the roots alive until spring. Soil temperatures under the surface of the ground are far more stable through the winter, even in a cold climate like the one we have here in Jackson. So, stabilizing the temperature of the roots is your primary objective for this project. 

How to Winterize Potted Plants 

There are a few different ways you can go about attempting to winterize your potted plants, and we have highlighted two of them below. 

1. Bury them. Digging a hole and placing your pot in that hole, before surrounding it with soil, is one way to mitigate the problem we described above. By effectively planting the pot in the ground, you are giving the plant the insulation it needs and you’ll protect it from the temperature swings that take place above the surface. However, you do need to make sure that your pot is up to the challenge of this technique, as the freezing ground could cause it to break. Specifically, a terra cotta planter is unlikely to make it through winter in one piece with this option. Consider trying a plastic planter that won’t absorb water and will be far more likely to come out of the ground in one piece after the ground thaws out in a few months. When the ground does thaw, pull your buried pots out of the soil right away, clean them up, and put them back in their normal position to start growing once again. 
2. Create a protected space. As we have discussed, it’s the temperature swings of winter that can do much of the damage that your plants are likely to experience. So, if you don’t want to attempt to bury your pots for the winter, consider huddling them together in a space that is likely to stay as stable as possible from a temperature perspective. First, that means getting them out of the sun and into a shaded spot. This might seem a little counterintuitive – you might feel like you should put them in the sun for some warmth – but that is only going to lead to bigger swings in temperature for the plant from day to night. Hide your potted plants on the dark side of a building and wrap the pots with burlap or another insulative material. 
3. Stop fertilizing them. Many plants exploit environmental cues to get ready for the winter. For example, many temperate plants enter the first stage of dormancy by reducing growth when the days grow shorter and the temperature drops. To help this along, by July, cease fertilizing your plants to prevent fragile new growth that is susceptible to frost.
4. Take cuttings. Take cuttings of delicate perennials like coleus, impatiens, and geraniums to overwinter indoors in the fall when the nights start to turn cool. Annuals, delicate perennials, and tropical plants should be brought indoors and placed near a window before the first frost.
5. Store some plants in a safe place. Perennials that are only half hardy should be moved to a cold garage or basement, where they will lose their leaves and hibernate. For hardy perennials that stay outside, after the first hard frost, cut them back to four to five inches above the soil line.
6. Protect plant pots with tarps. Many perennials, trees, and shrubs must have a dormancy or chill period if they are to flower and fruit the following season, and cannot be moved into the house. Leave these plants outdoors and protect them using a tarp. 

A Nice Start to the Spring

By helping some of your potted plants make it through the winter, you can get your landscaping efforts off to a good start in the spring by having at least a few pots ready to go. If some other parts of your landscape need the help of a professional touch, contact TLC right away to discuss our services. We’d love to help!