A River Runs Through It

16 years ago

...Describes my back yard right now. I overwintered some small plants of Hot Lips and a couple other types of S. greggii types in in-ground pots. Unfortunately, when I went out to check on them just now, they were sitting in an inch of water at the bottom of a slow-moving stream. I promptly pulled the pots out of the water and mud, tugging harder than I expected because the roots had grown through the holes in the bottom of the pots.

I'm not sure what to do next. The pots are sitting on the back porch, above ground level, but still getting rained on. We will be getting some colder temps in the next few days, with a couple nights going down close to freezing. Will the pots be ok with roots exposed to possibly freezing temps? Should I try to protect them somehow? If so, how?

Thanks,

Lois in PA

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Comments (3)

hybridsage
16 years ago
Lois :
Your plants should be fine through the freeze tonight.
mine were out when we had a 1 1/2 of snow on the ground(yes in pots)no problem. I hope your plants made it through the winter that would be the bigger concern.
Art
loisthegardener_nc7b
Original Author
16 years ago
It's too early to look for new growth on the stems, but the roots growing through the holes are pale (sage?) green, so I think there is hope for at least two of the three.

Thanks,

Lois in PA
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loisthegardener_nc7b
Original Author
16 years ago
Well, sad to say, none of them made it. So I know never to overwinter salvia in that spot again.

What puzzles me is that I had some rather large S. Marachino planted in a raised bed garden that also did not survive the winter. The lavender planted in the same bed at the same time bed seems perfectly happy. Is salvia greggii even less tolerant of a little winter dampness than lavender? Would the salvia do better overwintered in a big pot outside?