Overwintering Cannas, Dahlias, Caladiums, Tuberous Begonias, and Elephant Ears
If you live in colder part of the country, many of the lush, tropical beauties we offer will be tender in your zone, unable to survive the winter. Often gardeners will simply grow these beautiful plants as annuals, just enjoying them for one season. But the serious plant enthusiast rises to the challenge and goes the extra mile to let these plants reach their full perennial potential. If you make the effort to overwinter your tender plants, you can enjoy an increasingly beautiful display every season, and your garden will be all the more elite for the inclusion of these exotic perennials.
One way to keep your tender plants growing is to keep them in a pot so that you can move them indoors or shelter them in a
greenhouse. This option is easy and convenient, and lets your plants continue to slowly grow throughout the winter, but a greenhouse also involves some start-up costs and requires that your plants all be in containers.
1. Dig
Wait until the bloom show has ended and the foliage has started to die off, towards the end of fall. Your plants will tell you when it is time by dying back and going into dormancy. Once your plants are done for the season, take a pair of clean pruning shears and cut back the foliage to just above the ground (about 6 inches, depending on the plant's height). This will give the plant a clear signal that the season is over and it is time to go into dormancy, if it hasn't already. It is important to use a clean pair of shears to avoid introducing rot—rot is your biggest enemy throughout this process, so clean your shears with alcohol to be extra careful.
Now you are ready to dig up your tuber. Move about a foot away from the crown and dig down deep to get underneath of it. Be careful not to pierce the tubers, because again that can promote rot. Circle the plant, loosening up the soil, and then gently lift it out of the ground. Rinse off any remaining soil until you can see all the tubers hanging from the stalks. Cut off any tubers that look rotten, to keep the rot from spreading.
2. Divide
Next it is time to divide up the plant. This will help it grow healthier next year, and it means that you get more specimens to grace your garden!
First identify the eyes—these can vary from species to species, but they look similar to the eyes of a potato, and this is where new growth will come from next year. Cut up the plant into segments, trying to leave the individual tubers as intact as possible, and make sure that each division has at least one eye.
3. Dry
Now set the tubers out to dry. Leave them out at least 3 days until they are thoroughly dry. Placing them on cardboard can help. Getting the tubers dry will prevent them from rotting.
Lastly, you want to put your dried tubers away for the winter. A cardboard box, wooden box, or basket are all great storage places, as they allow some ventilation. Place the tubers in a medium, like wood chips, sand, or vermiculite, which will insulate and help to prevent rot. This medium should be just slightly moist to keep the tubers from drying out TOO much over winter.
Then place your box in a dark, cool place (50 degrees at most, 35 degrees at the least) over winter. A cellar, garage, basement, or even dark closet might work—if all else fails, set a small refrigerator to 45 degrees and store your overwinter plants there. Don’t forget to label your box so you know what varieties are in it! Check in on your tubers just a few times throughout the winter to make sure they are not rotting or getting too shriveled up. A little bit of shriveling is normal, but if they seem very dry, give them a spritz of water. Remember that the tuber stops "drinking" during dormancy, so they just need a small amount of water to keep them from completely drying out. And if you see signs of rot, throw those tubers out.
That is all there is to it! Next spring you should (fingers crossed) have more healthy plants than ever before, ready to provide you another long season of beauty! You can also get the jump on the season by starting your plants indoors about a month early. Start with a few hours of indirect sunlight and let them adjust slowly to light again before you plant them out.
The dry, sparse appearance of bareroot perennials can be alarming to the novice gardener, but in reality ordering bare root is often the smarter choice. Foliage and blooms can be seductive, but the health and long-term potential of a plant truly lies in its roots. Bareroot plants have several advantages over plants in containers—bare roots are less likely to be harmed in the shipping process, their timing is easier to control, and they are field-grown for larger, healthier root systems. This why Wayside Gardens has had great success with bare root plants, and you can too!
It is safer to ship plants in bareroot form because there is no risk in harming new growth, and therefore the plant actually has a better chance of making it safely into the customer’s garden.
And thanks to refrigerated storage, the timing of bareroot perennials can be precisely controlled. "(Bareroot perennials) are dormant," explains JPPA Lead Horticulturist Benjamin Chester, "But as soon as they leave the refrigerated storage they'll begin breaking dormancy." And once the plant 'wakes up', it is ready to begin the growing season in earnest, which means it will quickly catch up to the level of container plants.
The most important benefit of bareroot perennials is that they can be field grown rather than confined to containers. The bareroot Cherry Cheesecake Hibiscus pictured hereperfectly illustrates the difference between a field-grown perennial and a containerized one. Wayside Gardens used to offer this variety in a quart container, like the Monarda next to it. But the Hibiscus was simply too cramped in that space, so Wayside switched to growing it in the earth and selling it bare root. The result is a thick, fibrous mass of roots that used to fill up several cubic feet of soil and which, even in its bare, pruned form would be too large to fit back into the 1 Quart container. What a difference a little space makes! While small and slow-growing cultivars can start well in containers, large and vigorous cultivars need more room to stretch out and develop a solid root system.
