'New Plant' Survival Over Winter (When you don't have a bed ready to plant into)

And zone 3 is not the best location to be dithering about, trying to decide where to plant a nice new nursery plant, so that it can get its roots down and settle in before winter. But cold climate aside, I think we all have done that - found an unexpected plant sale, or located something we have been looking for - but now that it's home from the store, where is it going in the garden(s)?

I ran into that very problem this past summer, when I found a dozen plants at a nursery (an hour and a half drive from home that I stop at only once or twice a year)... and yes, they were all just 'perfect' for the redesign on a border bed alongside one of my garden paths that I am reshaping and slightly extending. I started with new daylily beds and edging along the lefthand side of the stone path... and used 'some' of the new plants along the path edge.



Everything was coming along smoothly. Then, midsummer, two things happened... 1) a tree fell through a fence and damaged one area of the gardens...



... and someone at work was out sick, so I ended up working a lot of extra days, which meant I lost garden time.

But (optimistically) I was sure, 'I can finish this in September, and still have plenty of time before cold weather.' And the weather went South in a hurry, meaning that we had one of the coldest Septembers I've seen; the wind was wicked bad, the thunderstorms roared through one after another ... and during the two-week vacation I took, just so I could work in the gardens and put them to bed for winter... Did. Not. Happen. Weather was the worst September I have seen in decades. And the 'other' side of the path still needed to be dug out, plants divided and moved, the border bed extended, edged and compost added, bringing the current bed all the way out to the edge of the flag stone path.



And then I realized: the plants did not have to be planted before winter... but the POTS did. All you need, when the bed is not ready and winter is coming, is a 'holding spot'. Bury the pots up to their rims in the ground "anywhere" in the gardens you can ... or in a compost pile. Or temporarily into an edge of the gardens where they are out of the way and where they won't be lost / plowed / or forgotten. In my case, I dug holes in a raised bed I only use for summer vegetables and sank the pots in the ground for the winter. I covered them with a light layer of autumn leaves and let them winter over where the frost would not hurt them.

Today, I raked the leaves off and checked the pots. It's April in zone 3, and I still have snow melting around my gardens and yard. But when I gently raked the leaves away from the pots in my 'holding' spot ... every single pot has the start of new growth just beginning to peek through the soil in the pots. Every single plant survived the winter: from Shasta Daisy to Delphiniums, and Sedum to Ajuga and Lamb's Ears.







The next time you find 'just the right plant' (or one you have been searching for), but you are running out of season and there is no bed ready to put it into, give it a 'temporary' place in the ground and let it hold-over in the nursery pot until you have gotten past the cold season, or found a place for it in the gardens. It has the same protection as any other plant that you have actually planted into the ground, so it's not sitting above ground in a pot and exposed to bitter winter or biting winds. It gets rain, sun, and all the benefits of being outdoors (not in a dark garage, or over-extended in a basement or grow-room / etc.) ... AND it does not need to be 'hardened off' come spring. Just don't wait too long, because ... if you do... it can still become pot-bound, or run out of nutrients in 'old' potting soil.