Garden Journal, October 16 2023
It’s mid-October and I’m just over halfway through the annual reorganisation of the more tender exotics, trying to give them the best chance of surviving winter. I tend to think of this as a three stage process: first succulent things, then evergreen things, then everything else. I’ll explain what I mean.
Succulent Things.
This is a pretty self-explanatory category; it includes all the cacti and other succulent plants that are not completely hardy outdoors in my part of the world. Various Echeveria, Aloe and Agave (some of which may survive most winters outdoors, but might not) and all the true cacti. Many of these plants can actually tolerate quite a lot of cold, provided that they are dry, so these spend winter in the unheated greenhouse. The really tender things come indoors to live on windowsills. The need for dryness is why I prioritise these things over others; they need time to dry out before biting winter cold arrives, so they spend a couple of weeks in the greenhouse gently drying out before any other types of plants join them. For me, this is a job that occurs in late September to early October, depending on the weather (it happens early in very wet autumns).
Evergreen Things
These are the leafy plants that don’t shed their leaves, things like cycads, bromeliads and evergreen Agapanthus. These are plants that might be damaged by even a light frost, not killed, but made unsightly looking. These also want to be kept relatively dry over winter, but not quite as bone dry as the real cacti. I move these things are moved under cover sometime in early to mid October.
Everything Else
Practically speaking, this is a category of leafy plants that die back in winter. Some of these are naturally deciduous plants, like Hedychium and Canna, that die back to an underground rhizome. Alternatively, they may be plants like Musa basjoo, the hardy banana, that would naturally keep their leaves, but can survive being defoliated over the UK winter. I will often leave these plants until they’ve been scorched by the first proper frost, Which usually occurs sometime in early November. Then I move them to their winter quarters, which may be the greenhouse, or may be the garage (depending on space).
None of this is absolutely hard and fast. But I find this a handy rule of thumb for deciding priorities, a kind of gardening triage, which if useful to bear in mind on a dull and rainy autumn weekend!