This past week it has again been in the mid 90's. Yesterday was a little bit better as it was only in the low 80's. I can't imagine this hideous warm streak lasting for ever but it sure doesn't feel like fall around here. I hate to admit it but visions of snow swirling around outside with chestnuts roasting on an open fire are pretty appealing right about now. This summer has been hot and dry. Ridiculously hot and dry. In consideration of the weather we have had, when are people from the cooler zones going to start mulching their bogs and bringing potted plants in?
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Last year we had snow two weeks before Thanksgiving. That's rather unusual. I sort of got caught with my pants down on that one as I normally am drilling holes to plant tulip and iris bulbs up until the ground freezes which is generally somewhere the beginning to middle of December. I never was able to plant any of those bulbs. Strange weather patterns we've been having the last few years.
I recall mulching sometime in October last year. I recall cutting the Sarrs down and moving them all in the garage sometime in November.
Last year we only had a few days of temps in the 90's and if I am not mistaken, you could have counted those days on one hand. This year we've had weeks on end of 90F temps. Screwy to say the least. I suppose I'll cut down the plants after they start browning and haul them in when the first snows begin to fall. I have already begun to cut back on watering all Sarrs, particularly the Oreos. Most of my temperate Drosera are already beginning to form hibernacula and the temperate Pinguicula is either down to a little turion or beginning to form rosettes of winter leaves. I suppose the plants know when it's time to take a rest even if the weather is out of sync.
I recall mulching sometime in October last year. I recall cutting the Sarrs down and moving them all in the garage sometime in November.
Last year we only had a few days of temps in the 90's and if I am not mistaken, you could have counted those days on one hand. This year we've had weeks on end of 90F temps. Screwy to say the least. I suppose I'll cut down the plants after they start browning and haul them in when the first snows begin to fall. I have already begun to cut back on watering all Sarrs, particularly the Oreos. Most of my temperate Drosera are already beginning to form hibernacula and the temperate Pinguicula is either down to a little turion or beginning to form rosettes of winter leaves. I suppose the plants know when it's time to take a rest even if the weather is out of sync.
What a crazy year. All summer long here, we've had days in the lower sixties, and nights in the lower fifties. Now that it's fall, the temps have actually climbed during the day to near seventy. Usually, we have a few heat waves during the summer/fall, but we've had none this year. Needless to say, the sarracenia are NOT happy, with the exception of S. x Judith Hindle, which I think would grow happily in any conditions. I leave 'em out all year since we don't really freeze, so there's nowhere for them to go, but I suspect that I may lose one or two since they just didn't grow much. My S. oreophilia made three pitchers total before the phylodia started. Who knows what I'll see next spring.
At least the nepenthes are happy!
Capslock
At least the nepenthes are happy!
Capslock
My oreos started producing phylodia back in July. Some of my flava started in August but now they are sending up new pitchers. Oddly enough, I had quite a few plants sending up flower stalks in the middle of the summer. I assumed they were shutting down early to conserve energy by producing phylodia early throughout the heat wave or stressing and trying to set seed. Come to think of it, my Sarrs produced very few pitchers too. I know I have some plants that won't make it this year to next but which ones they will be is beyond me.
jimscott
Tropical Fish Enthusiast
Jimscott hit it on the head for me as well. I really don't want my potted Sarracenia to sit outside when it's in the 20s fahrenheit. So, I move them into my unheated sunporch and keep them just damp (cut back water). At the same time, I'll mulch the bog, but I allow it to dry a little as well. Keep in mind that jimscott and I are in zone 6, so this will be a little earlier for you, but I have never lost a plant from just freezing (dehydration due to soil that was too dry, then frozen--yes!). Even in my sunporch, it can get into the 20s over winter, but it is protected from whipping winds etc.[b said:
Last night at 11pm it was still 73F outside. I've not quite experienced anything like this at this time of year. I still have all of my Mexican Pings outside. Looks as if we might be out of the 90's though which is welcome relief and we have been getting enough rain as of the last two weeks.
I have never lost a Sarracenia in my outside bogs or by sticking it pot and all in my garage over the winter and this will be my third winter of overwintering. I have lost a few Drosera that were in smaller pots and I suspect I lost them to dehydration as I should have been out there hydrating the smaller pots more frequently than the much larger pots but I didn't think the size of the pot would be so critical so I was only checking on them all about once a month. The 4" and 6" pots dry out considerably faster than the 8", 10" and 12" pots and most of the Drosera were in the 4" and 6" pots while most of the Sarrs were in 10" and 12" pots.
Just out of curiosity, has anyone had any success overwintering Sarrs by sticking pots down into window wells of their homes? My girlfriend is going to stick a few of hers down in her covered window wells. Her window wells are very shallow, maybe a foot and a half at best but I still think it might work. My window wells might be ideal as they are very deep at 7' and I can access them from inside the basement to add water to the drip trays to wick up because they are all escape windows.
I've got about 100 pots to come in this year and I'm thinking if window wells work this affords me expansion possibilities beyond my wildest dreams because I have 6 over sized extra deep window wells and I did a little experimenting and I can easily cram about 15 pots of assorted sizes down into each one. That's 15 x 6 or space to overwinter 90 more plants. My garage is at capacity once the school brings over about ten to fifteen 10" pots they want me to over winter and my girlfriend is bringing me at least 3 pots to overwinter in my garage that she doesn't want to risk in her window wells plus all of my personal plants.
What do you all think? Has anyone done this?
I have never lost a Sarracenia in my outside bogs or by sticking it pot and all in my garage over the winter and this will be my third winter of overwintering. I have lost a few Drosera that were in smaller pots and I suspect I lost them to dehydration as I should have been out there hydrating the smaller pots more frequently than the much larger pots but I didn't think the size of the pot would be so critical so I was only checking on them all about once a month. The 4" and 6" pots dry out considerably faster than the 8", 10" and 12" pots and most of the Drosera were in the 4" and 6" pots while most of the Sarrs were in 10" and 12" pots.
Just out of curiosity, has anyone had any success overwintering Sarrs by sticking pots down into window wells of their homes? My girlfriend is going to stick a few of hers down in her covered window wells. Her window wells are very shallow, maybe a foot and a half at best but I still think it might work. My window wells might be ideal as they are very deep at 7' and I can access them from inside the basement to add water to the drip trays to wick up because they are all escape windows.
I've got about 100 pots to come in this year and I'm thinking if window wells work this affords me expansion possibilities beyond my wildest dreams because I have 6 over sized extra deep window wells and I did a little experimenting and I can easily cram about 15 pots of assorted sizes down into each one. That's 15 x 6 or space to overwinter 90 more plants. My garage is at capacity once the school brings over about ten to fifteen 10" pots they want me to over winter and my girlfriend is bringing me at least 3 pots to overwinter in my garage that she doesn't want to risk in her window wells plus all of my personal plants.
What do you all think? Has anyone done this?
Say Aaron, don't know how I missed your post but I did. Long time no hear. Your plants are always beautiful and they wreak of health. I can hold off stuffing mine in the garage until the temps don't hold above 20. That's not too far off from what I've done in the past which is to move them once the snow starts hitting. That would only be a few weeks difference actually. I'm a little bit behind you because of my zone but not much, maybe I could make it into mid to late November. Who knows, maybe longer given how darn warm its been this year. If the temps stay as artificially warm as they have been this past summer, I could conceivably make it into January- just kidding.
Clint
Stay chooned in for more!
Clint
Stay chooned in for more!
and remember,
dormancy is a long, slow, gradual process..
your CPs "start to go dormant" at about the Summer solstice..late June, when the days start getting shorter..
and the process is well under way by August and September,
then the really cooler temps of October, and the much shorter days, really puts the final nudge into total dormancy..
For plants, everything is a long slow gradual process..
they may not look it, but plants are preparing for dormancy all summer..they dont just suddenly go dormant the first weekend in November!
I leave my Sars and VFTs outside until nighttime lows drop into the mid 30's..they can take that, in fact, its good for them!
by the time my plants go in the fridge around Halloween, they have been "going dormant" for 3 or 4 months, and are naturally fully dormant by the time they go in the fridge..
they then simply *continue* that dormancy, in the mild mid-30's environmant of the refridgerator, until mid February when spring begins again..
Scot
dormancy is a long, slow, gradual process..
your CPs "start to go dormant" at about the Summer solstice..late June, when the days start getting shorter..
and the process is well under way by August and September,
then the really cooler temps of October, and the much shorter days, really puts the final nudge into total dormancy..
For plants, everything is a long slow gradual process..
they may not look it, but plants are preparing for dormancy all summer..they dont just suddenly go dormant the first weekend in November!
I leave my Sars and VFTs outside until nighttime lows drop into the mid 30's..they can take that, in fact, its good for them!
by the time my plants go in the fridge around Halloween, they have been "going dormant" for 3 or 4 months, and are naturally fully dormant by the time they go in the fridge..
they then simply *continue* that dormancy, in the mild mid-30's environmant of the refridgerator, until mid February when spring begins again..
Scot
[b said:
This is very true. The plants really do seem to slow down by the time summer actually starts. It starts even earlier with S. Oreophila. This plant acts like it's getting ready for dormancy as soon as it starts growing!!
A few of my sarrs are just starting to die back. My s. oreos died back a long time ago. I have a hoop greenhouse and live in zone 5b, almost zone 6. Last year I left them out until mid-December. I put them pot and all in my garage in rubbermaid containers and covered them with pine needles to over winter. It worked very well! Laura, I think your window well idea sounds good. That deep in the ground it should stay around 50 degrees all year long. Good luck!
-buckeye
Hey Scott, Hey Eric,
Thanks for your comments.
Yes, as mentioned earlier, my Oreos were down to phylodia in July. I've been looking at some of my other plants and my D. linearis and D. anglica are definitely down to hibernacula and I hadn't even noticed.
I gotta take a photo of one of my window wells. These things are incredible. I kept looking at them and looking at them and thinking why not utilize that space. Here's what stopped me. Lack of air circulation and no sun reaching the bottom of the well at all. I put a child's pinwheel down there to see if it ever moved at all. It didn't and we get some pretty high winds around here. That surprised me. The air down there is stagnant for lack of a better way to describe it. The window wells are also deep as mentioned so the sun never hits the bottom so dark and damp is my hang up because I’m thinking fungal infections. My guess was that the temps would stay relatively constant in the mid to upper 40's so your guess of 50 wasn't that far off from mine. I'll stick a thermometer in there and we'll see what temps they maintain. My concern is that at that depth with warmer air temps and stagnant air, I feel somewhat torn as to whether the plants would have a need for a fungicide or not. I won’t use fungicides because I'm not sold on the benefits outweighing the risk of using them. The window wells won't be like in my garage where the temps will be in the 30's because of supplemental heat and there will be air exchange because we use those garage doors several times a day. The other big plus about the garages is that I have huge windows that I stick the plants on shelves in front of. The plants are dormant and don’t need any sunlight but sun can help keep some ickies from getting a foothold in a pot. I'm going to try a few plants in one of those window wells. I’ve several plants from Home Depot that I would be willing to stick down there this first year. If they come out unscathed, well then that’s an excuse for me to go shopping as I’ll have more space to overwinter- lots more space to overwinter.
Thanks for your comments.
Yes, as mentioned earlier, my Oreos were down to phylodia in July. I've been looking at some of my other plants and my D. linearis and D. anglica are definitely down to hibernacula and I hadn't even noticed.
I gotta take a photo of one of my window wells. These things are incredible. I kept looking at them and looking at them and thinking why not utilize that space. Here's what stopped me. Lack of air circulation and no sun reaching the bottom of the well at all. I put a child's pinwheel down there to see if it ever moved at all. It didn't and we get some pretty high winds around here. That surprised me. The air down there is stagnant for lack of a better way to describe it. The window wells are also deep as mentioned so the sun never hits the bottom so dark and damp is my hang up because I’m thinking fungal infections. My guess was that the temps would stay relatively constant in the mid to upper 40's so your guess of 50 wasn't that far off from mine. I'll stick a thermometer in there and we'll see what temps they maintain. My concern is that at that depth with warmer air temps and stagnant air, I feel somewhat torn as to whether the plants would have a need for a fungicide or not. I won’t use fungicides because I'm not sold on the benefits outweighing the risk of using them. The window wells won't be like in my garage where the temps will be in the 30's because of supplemental heat and there will be air exchange because we use those garage doors several times a day. The other big plus about the garages is that I have huge windows that I stick the plants on shelves in front of. The plants are dormant and don’t need any sunlight but sun can help keep some ickies from getting a foothold in a pot. I'm going to try a few plants in one of those window wells. I’ve several plants from Home Depot that I would be willing to stick down there this first year. If they come out unscathed, well then that’s an excuse for me to go shopping as I’ll have more space to overwinter- lots more space to overwinter.
