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What plants winter well in Austin, TX?
laughingnovemberrain asked:
I just moved to Austin, TX. I’d like to put some potted plants outside of my apartment. They will get lots of morning sun. Any suggestions on what plants will winter well outside? I’d like to have some geraniums, but don’t know if they will stand the cold. Also, what about herbs?
4 Responses to “What plants winter well in Austin, TX?”
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December 30th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Dianthus, pansies, snapdragons, geraniums will need to be covered with a towel on the few nights you will get a freeze. Your herbs will be the same. The bad part of growing in containers is that the root zone gets cold from the pots being exposed on all sides from not being in the ground.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:03 pm
My rosemary does just fine through our winters. I leave my small-leaved gardenia out, too; it’s an evergreen in a fairly large pot. I just saw some really nice trimmed rosemaries and pretty gardenias in three-gallon pots at the Home Depot on Brodie (SW Austin) this evening, as a matter of fact.
Last year, my gardenia bloomed until nearly Christmas, and started again in March. It’s blooming right now, actually. Handsome plant.
I have really good luck with pansies and snapdragons in pots. Remember that both of these are heavy feeders; you’ll need to get some good organic food with high phosphate (I like Texas Star).
Larger pots, especially that new kind of foam that looks like stone, are best because they protect the root zone better and don’t need watering as frequently.
We have so few hard freezes that you can do most anything. Home Depot has some light non-woven covers to protect tender plants from a light frost and these are usually enough for most things. The gardenias, rosemaries, pansies and snaps don’t even need covering, in my experience, though I’d probably put the gardenia in the greenhouse if a couple of days in the twenties was forecast.
Tonight, for example, I put most of the tropicals in the greenhouse, but I left a lot of them out and just covered them. I keep my pots well mulched with pine straw in the winter, too. Just bring them inside the front door if a hard freeze, or several days of cold, are forecast. That might only happen once or twice.
Geraniums will survive if you take these precautions, though their growth will be slow when the weather is cool. I’ve got a bunch of them up in East Texas that I’ll be bringing back to Austin at Thanksgiving, and I’ll leave them outside almost all the time until I want to force strong growth so I can make cuttings..
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:54 pm
You’re in zone 8, almost anything you plant will over winter well in your zone.
January 5th, 2009 at 7:42 am
how i know this is a long story but..
for geraniums:
pot your best plants and bring them indoors for winter. Cut the plant back to about one third(in other words measure the plant and divide by three) its original height. Carefully dig up the plant, and pot it into a six-inch or larger flowerpot. Water thoroughly and put it by a sunny window.
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