Hi, Jen. Good to see you.

If I remember, one of your problems is that you didn't feel you could have something unsightly anywhere on your property or else you could come up with something like my mound of leaves in plastic bags.

And you didn't have an accessible crawl space under any part of a house.

And no shed.

Is that sorta right?

I think putting the plant in a cold dormant state might be the best, but I'll tell you about my friend's experience overwintering one plant inside last winter. A Frillibet that had some nice flowers going into the winter. It was kept in a room which was well lit by south windows. It was pretty for a while, but then just starting looking like it had been kept up all night if that makes sense to you. Late in the winter, it was moved to a room that was closed off and therefore colder, but no where near freezing or anything.
Buds were formed for this season's flowers. This Spring it was taken out and flowered nicely. It started out with Powdery Mildew right away and I suspect that could be one price you might need to pay for stressing out a plant and maybe creating good growing conditions for mildew. But the plant seemed to shake that off and got better pretty soon. I haven't taken a close look at it in a long while.

But the ideal, I think, is to find a way to expose it to a real winter with cold and moisture, but find a way to moderate that cold somehow.

Hay.

Oh my, Hay, that cracked me up! You've got quite a memory for details, that's for sure. Basically you could sum it up like this: I live in a typical house right smack in the middle of a big city. I have a normal sized yard without a "back forty." I have to keep the hay mounds and such to a minimum 'else I might find myself in deep doo-doo with the homes association. Last year, however, I did get away with storing quite a few bags of leaves out on my brick patio. I'm thinking that might be just the ticket for my container, I'll move it out there and surround it with my future compost. I hadn't thought of that, thanks for the inspiration. (Good to see you, too!)

Jen,

A better idea would be to bring it over to my house and store it in my unheated garage. My 'Lady in Red' and Japanese Maples would love the company.

Oh yeah, and I'll make sure to remind you to pick it up in the spring! ;-)

Just how cold can a pot of ES get without suffering root damage from freezing? Won't my totally unheated garage get too cold in Dec, Jan & Feb? (In Topeka) Won't the mice get into leaves & hay? Should I leave the plant outdoors to frost, then remove damaged stems, or cut the flowers and stems off before I put them in the garage? Or, should I move them into the garage before the frost? Do I worry too much? My two plants have been so lovely all summer on my shady patio and I would hate to lose them because of something I did or didn't do.

Be careful what you offer, GTinKC, I might just take you up on that offer!

I bought a Nikko blue knowing it wasn't hardy for my zone which is 3. I bought it anyway and thought I could protect it somehow in this very cold climate but now I'm wondering if that is possible. It's still in the container and am afraid to plant it at this late date. Do you think i could bring it in for the winter and plant it outside in the spring?And where should I keep it. Would the root cellar be ok. It is quite cold in there but does not freeze.Also would i need to water it during it's hibernation?