Jenny, do you have a garage that is UNheated, or just no garage at all? I overwinter a LOT of plants in my unheated garage. The key is to make sure the plant goes dormant before you bring it in. You don't want to keep it green and growing, but you want it to go dormant.

Of course, you are in a MUCH colder zone than I am. What do you mean by "cool", lol? Do you have an idea of the temperature?

:)
Dee

I do have an UNheated shed, but have never had any success over wintering anything out there. They were always DEAD in the spring. We get to -30 in the winter on some days.

By cool in the basement, I mean about 60 maybe 65. I do have a light set up down there. And this past winter managed to keep a lantana, some sweet potato vine and some geraniums alive.

Thanks
Jenny P

My personal opinion is that 60-65 degrees is too warm, and again, I wouldn't try to keep them green and growing during the winter. I would think these perennials need a dormant period, and that is what they get in an unheated, dark garage.

But, since you have tried the shed unsuccessfully, perhaps you can try the basement and lights. I don't have any experience with that so I can't say whether it will work or not.

Have you tried insulating the pots at all in the shed? I don't know how big it is, or how many plants you want to overwinter, but is there room to put a couple of haybales around the plants inside the shed? And under them also, to get them off the floor?

Maybe another option is to bury the pots in the ground and then insulate around and above them.

Sorry, I'm kind of grasping at straws here, but your zone is sooo much colder than mine (you brave soul, you, lol!) so what works for me won't necessarily work for you, and I'm just throwing out ideas that might be worth a shot.

Hopefully someone else will chime in. Best of luck!
:)
Dee

I'm in Minnesota too, but in the cities. I push it with zone 5 plants, but I keep them in the ground and mulch them heavily, and wrap them with burlap. I've had pretty good sucess with this- like I do mums, lavender, and some coreopsis, even some of the roses. I can't bring things in because we have a corn stove, and it's too warm.
Have you considered trying w/s? You can save your seeds from these plants and start to sow them in Feb/ and you'll most likely have new babies each year.
I have tons to plant right now, you should check into this if you haven't already.
Good luck to you.

Since you have a basement, do you have window wells? If you have window wells then put one of those plastic, greenhouse-like covers over the top of the window well- that could work. The below-ground temperature is usually warmer than above ground and the window well cover would allow for light and even help make the area warmer.

You might even consider getting some soil heating cables and lay them out in the bottom of the window well then cover with sand. Plug it in only at night just to keep things slightly warmer down there.

I'm zone 6 but have considered trying this to overwinter zone 8 plants.

Thank you
I did manage to keep the agastachie going in the garden, with lots of mulch for 3 years, but they were 3 mild years! The last couple I have not had any luck with that. I really love the rootbeer Agastachie, and Black & Blue salvia as a combo in my front garden. But they seem to be getting harder to find! This year I had to order them Mail order, and my checkbook is crying.

I have done winter sowing, not this past year, but the year before. I loved it, this last winter though my life was such chaos that I didn't do any of it. In fact things are just now settling down, I finally got out into the garden for the first time yesterday! What a MESS they are!

I think I am going to try it, I order 3 of each plant, I will plant 2 in the garden, the 3rd I will put into a pot, bury it, then pull it out and try keeping over in the basement.

Jenny p

Good idea, but the basement in this 100 year old house only had 2 basement windows. And those had to be blocked off because of where the Utilities had to be located. In fact my basement resembles a dungeon!

Jenny P

Hi Jenny,

It looks as though I live closer to your area than anyone else so far -- I've not yet been able to overwinter B&B salvia, but I had success this year with agastache Cana, over-wintered in my attached but unheated/uninsulated garage. Here's what I did:

I had the agastache in a container over the summer. I kept it out until probably early November; we hadn't gotten bitterly cold yet, but the garden was long done and the agastache was dormant.

Then, I brought it into the garage. I *didn't* cut back the plant, but wrapped the pot in a couple layers of bubble wrap. I set the wrapped plant inside a large one of those faux-stone foam planters, and then set a bag or two of leaves on top.

This sat in the warmest corner of my garage until late March. I unwrapped it then and gave it a good drink, but left it in the garage another week or so before moving the still-dormant pot outside. When new growth appeared at the base, I cut back last year's remnants.

It got snowed on a couple times in April, but is now healthy and green and about 18" tall. I'll be doing this again in the fall!