remind the rest of us.. where you are???

first.. dormant plants dont need a lot of light .... as they are dormant ... im not sure they would be photosynthesizing ....

that said... i wouldn't store them in a dark cave ...

in my MI ... if i were doing this.. i would surround them with burlap ..... stapled to 1 x 2 stakes.. and the top stays open ... to avoid heat build up .. which could be worse than winter itself ...

the usual idea is.. get them dormant.. and keep them dormant ... which means.. cold.. we dont want to create some mini micro climate.. that actually ends up warmer than winter.. which might make them come out of dormancy ...

after that.. it would protect from freeze drying winter winds ... since they are dormant.. they are not pumping a lot of water form the roots to the leaves ... so we try to minimize water loss from the leaves themselves ...

the wrapping also reduces direct sun on most the plant.. so individual leaves.. dont repeatedly freeze and thaw on warm days and cold nights ..

and then.. after a few years.. they get too big.. and then they end up left to their winter fates ... or.. in the alternative.. you declare you are done with that nonsense.. and just give up .. as who needs all that work ... lol ... on some foo foo PIA plant .. lifes too short.. etc ... lol ..

ken

Location as stated : (USDA says 6a, we say 5b, midcoast Maine)

Ken, evergreen plants do not go through a dormancy in the same manner deciduous plants do. Growth does slow and in most cases they do not produce flowers or seeds but otherwise all metabolic functions, including photosynthesis, continue. So they do require light.

I can't recommend a reliable method of winter protection, as it is just not required where I live :-) But I think some way of keeping the plants protected from cold drying winds yet open to light, rain or snow and other weather might be the best plan. Constructing some sort of wind shield - like the burlap curtain ken described - would be my thought.

IMO ... when the ground is frozen ... and the roots are frozen in that ground ... i just cant think much of anything is moving inside the plant.. not water up from the roots... not energy down to the roots for storage ...

and i am presuming that her ground freezes ... if she is in some z5 where it doesnt.. then i agree with you.. that something might be going on.. but its going on.. is super slo motion ...

and either way ... on this borderline zone ... i dont see photosynthesis being a major process ... regardless .... that isnt a winter protection issue ... as you dont encapsulate the plant anyway ...

ken

lets see if i can find some pix .. go figure.. many are completely encapsulated ... who knows what zone those are in .. or how many employees they have to do that .. lol ... could you image some rain/ice storm in winter.. collapsing them all.. and crushing the plants inside ... and having to look at it all for the rest of winter ... crikey ....

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=burlap+plant+protection&t=ffcm&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

Thanks, everyone. This link describes some of the winter habits of rhododendrons as they photosynthesize and react to cold. Amazing, but they do photosynthesize in winter! It's pretty smart for a plant that lives under the canopy to take advantage of the full winter sun when deciduous trees have lost their leaves. I appreciate the help. I'll work on preparing protection that doesn't touch leaves and allows for sun to come in.

Ken, my zone and area should be showing beside my name. I'm gathering it doesn't show for you, which is weird. Not sure why.

Deanna, the reason your location doesn’t show for Ken is because he is accessing the website via Houzz.com which doesn’t think that zones are important since it was basically designed for shopping and home decor, not gardening. If the person is accessing the page via Gardenweb.com, the location info you placed on that line in your profile shows up. Took me a lot of puzzlement to figure that out since when I wasn’t careful to always access via GW, I sometime saw location and sometimes didn’t, even for the same person.

The way around this issue is to do what Claire, Ken, and I have done, which is to make our location part of our last name so that it shows up regardless of which web address the page is accessed through.

One more of the weird inconsistencies that are a legacy of trying to combine two quite different websites with different focuses (or foci?). Another even stranger one is that when accessing via Houzz, the picture at the top of each forum page is black and white, while the picture on same forum page in Gardenweb is in color.

Well, that wasn't as easy as I thought. The wouldn't accept my suggestions, such as 6a-5b-Maine or 6a/5b Maine as my last name. You wouldn't believe what I tried! But, I got something to work. Will see if it shows up now.

BUT, this explains something weird I couldn't figure out! When I go to the forums by clicking a link in my email it uses houzz.com. My bookmarks are all Gardenweb URLs. This explains why sometimes I could see my info and sometimes I couldn't. Thank you, NHBabs!

For anybody who wants the Gardenweb URL for this forum, here it is.

Yup, logged into GW I see both the old GW zone info and the new part-of-your-name zone info.