Brenda, I leave my EEs out all winter, just mulch them a bit. My neighbor has done it successfully for years and I have done it for one winter so far. They came back just fine, bigger. Not sure about the walking iris. . .

I know the cannas on I-26 up the mountains, such as in front of the Welcome Center above Hendersonville, stay in the ground, and only get mulched. They seem to come back just fine. I don't know how EE's and walking iris compare in tenderness, but would think the EE's are about the same as cannas. I know my cannas do fine with a heavy mulch, as do the flowering gingers.

On looking in the Southern Living Garden Book, it would appear the iris is more tender - so you might have to dig them. If you let them dry, brush off any soil, and store them in dampish sand or peat, I would think it would work. Having never done it though, I will certainly bow to superior knowledge!! If they are in pots, I would think you can just bring the pots into the garage, and not let them dry out to bone-dry. From what I can make out, the secret, if you will, of storing bulbs/tubers over the winter is keeping a happy medium between too wet and too dry - you don't want rot and you don't want shriveling up. I have a hard time doing that, so let things take their chances in the ground, with a lot of extra mulch.

My understanding is that elephant ear hardiness is controlled by all sorts of factors beyond which species it is - did it form a sizeable bulb? does it have good drainage? what stage of maturity is it in? Some EE's grow to a certain size and then bloom and afterwards on alternating years they will stay somewhat smaller and spread by runners. So a clump will have larger leaves on blooming years than on running years. Some species don't even form a bulb so they will never overwinter (if we have a hard freeze). The small ground covering types seem to be quite reliable as are the regular green big ones. Black Magic has never overwintered outdoors for me but others claim it has for them. It all depends on the plant and the weather.

My straw bale shelter kept a lot of tender things happy this past winter. I simply arranged bales of wheat straw into a box shape and stuffed the potted plants into it (leaving the top open). I built it in the sunny part of the yard. When the temps got really cold I filled it with loose leaves. When the warm temps returned I dug out the leaves.

John- I like the straw bale idea. How much watering? Did you keep them on the dry side like when kept dormant?

I built two of them. One was up against a hoop house I use to store large tropicals that I keep just above freezing. The other was out in the middle of the yard. Most of the potted stuff went dormant and needed no care on my part. A few things continued to grow and needed occassional watering but not much. Everything needs less care in the winter.

I also tried to store some of the marginal things in a trench I dug in the yard and covered with a large mound of leaves - none of them survived.

Brenda, I overwintered a pot of dwarf ee last year in the storage room attached to my garage. They made it but were very late to come to life in the spring. I really thought I had lost them- I'm surprised I hadn't dumped the pot to use it for something else before they sprouted. I had relative success with a few different plants that way last winter so it will be my first choice for anything tender that goes dormant. I think that Deborah keeps hers in the crawlspace overwinter.

John, the main thing I wanted to try the straw bales for are the just rooted evergreen cuttings I got at the swap. It would go against my house in full southern exposure. Any tips for getting the variegated gardenia and 'Kanjiro' camelia cuttings through this way?

I don't risk first year cuttings outside. I put them inside the hoop house with the big tropicals.

One thing I learned from last winter. A lot of the typical patio plants bloom a lot better if given plenty of chill hours over the winter. Some of the common tropicals that you have to wait all summer for blooms come right out of the hoop house in May with buds ready to pop. My orchid cactus and aloes all bloomed this year - in fact the orchid cactus are on their second round of flowers!! and they have never bloomed for me in the past. I guess keeping things cool but not freezing is a good thing.

Well I guess I'm going to be calling in a favor this year for someone to keep those in a greenhouse for me this winter. I don't want to bring any plants inside this winter. Well-at least not in soil. Nandina's cuttings in water suggestion worked for me last year for coleus.

Keep in mind there is a big difference between a greenhouse and a hoophouse. And there is a big difference between keeping plants actively growing (warm and moist) and letting them go dormant (cool and dry). The things I was commenting on are all plants that enjoy a cool winter - like around 40-50 degrees. Which is too cold for most tropicals to grow. Seedlings and blooming annuals require 70 degree days to flourish, and that means a heated greenhouse which can be expensive.