PROTECT EXOTICS FROM THE COLD
Essential advice for exotic plants, plus ongoing undercover care
PREPARING small tender plants such as pelargoniums for winter is relatively straightforward. You lift and pot them, take cuttings and then consign them to a frost-free greenhouse or porch, giving them minimal care until spring.
Larger exotics, such as cannas, banana plants, dahlias and some fruit trees, can pose more of a problem. There’s their size for one thing – it may not be possible or practical to move them undercover.
So what do you do then? This is where horticultural fleece and bubblewrap become your key allies in the fight against winter’s cold. They are relatively cheap and long-lasting, and can be layered around plants until they give adequate insulation.
On these pages, I’ll look at protecting bananas, canna lilies and dahlias, and I’ll also suggest ways of keeping all your undercover plants healthy through the winter. The most common banana plants in British gardens are the relatively hardy Musa basjoo. If they are adequately wrapped and your container-grown plants raised on feet to prevent their compost waterlogging, they should happily sit through winters outside. Less hardy Ensete varieties are best kept undercover through winter. Musa bananas in borders should have their trunks wrapped in fleece or Hessian. Then create a wire cage around the trunk and pack it with straw, before topping it with a sheet of polythene to keep out the rain. Exotic fruit trees such as olive, nectarine, apricot and almond should also be wrapped, and their canopy encased in a fleece bag if small enough. If in containers, move them somewhere sheltered and stake them securely. Another popular plant that needs winter care is agapanthus, also known as African lilies. As their name suggests, they don’t really appreciate our cold winters and need to be kept warm throughout.
Deciduous varieties are hardier than evergreen cultivars, but all need insulating, so mulch border plants well with several inches of bark chippings or straw, and wrap container plants and station them against a sheltering wall. Keep checking vulnerable plants through winter, adding more insulation if it is dislodged by storms, and replacing it if it becomes waterlogged and risks causing rotting to develop.