^Couldn't have said it better myself, Scot.
Nice seeing you on the forums again, BTW.
thanks!
yeah, I havent been on-line much in the last couple years..
been busy getting married and buying a house!
but I have all my plants in new mini-bogs, and made a cool new rain collector this spring,
I want to take some pics soon, and a little description of it, and pop it on the forum here..
I will try to do that before the first frost..
And some people like to cut off all that which is dead and give the plants a head start on photosynthesis when they wake up. Not sure if it makes a difference or not, but that's what I do.
yeah, I should mention its not *necessary* to chop off all the leaves!
I just do it because it makes winter storage easier (I wrap the pots in plastic)
and it gives less material for mold to grow on..
but leaving on the leaves all winter can be fine too..and might give the plants a "head start" in the spring, because they already have leaves when they come out of dormancy.
but in my experience, the plants do fine every spring "starting from scratch"..
no complaints..
Scot