Keeping perennials alive is a balancing act

Unheated greenhouses can look and feel rather desolate at first glance this time of year – mine included! Walk inside and there’s not much colour about now that the late chrysanthemum displays are over and forced bowls of bulbs have gone into the house. Worse still, the midday temperature hovers around a lower single figure Celsius.

However, I am surrounded by potential from resident and stored perennials moved in for shelter. For example, there are stock plants of fuchsia and geranium, recently pruned and resting. No water for them, they’re surviving in the cold, testing environment and will offer precious stem cuttings eventually, as will the boxed dahlia tubers and chrysanthemum stools which already have shoots emerging. Keeping these and other perennials alive over winter is a balancing act but doable.

By comparison the grape vines are ultra-tough. They were recently pruned severely, with every lateral shoot reduced to within two buds from the main rods.

They look as if they’ve had a bad haircut day. But this is the way it should be every winter, to avoid congestion and disease, encourage fruit buds.

The ultimate challenge comes in guiding a precious streptocarpus collection through winter. These tender plants are pot-grown for summer display in the greenhouse but left on the benches, they’d die off. So, a few are stored in the propagating box without heat, and the remainder accommodated in relative warmth of the garden room.

If my belief in going to such lengths to preserve plant collections ever wavers, proof that it will all come together a few months down the line is always to hand. Technology has given us the smart phone whose images of flower, fruit and vegetable

successes last year do not lie!