Dianne, that is a great way to hold over plants and I love your walkway! What a strange turn of events hindering your progress, but you stayed cool and found a solution.

I did this with a miniature rose that I left in the pot for two years, then finally found a permanent home for it in the garden.

Vickie,

Thanks for the acorn. I 'saved' a weeping willow for my dad, years ago, by putting the pot into the ground. He started a young sapling from a cutting he took from a weeping willow at the property of one of my brothers but... once it got growing... he could not decide where he wanted it. Weeping willows, as you no doubt know, are large trees (eventually). When I saw it still in a pot and unplanted in October that year, I dug a hole and sank the pot right where it sat.

The next year, dad remembered it and 'It's probably dead now, but I have a spot for it...' he said. It grew for many years while he was still alive to enjoy it.

What a sweet story! I am so glad you had the foresight to save it and that your dad was able to enjoy it.

I planted my new daylilies last Fall in pots and your solution is what I should have done with them. I did plant some of them directly into my raised metal garden beds; the majority of those survived Winter. I placed the potted plants against a stone wall of my house in a protected area, surrounded by bales of pine straw, kept them watered, etc. Those have not fared as well. Lesson learned. I had intended to put all the pots into the metal garden beds and was talked out of that idea. Had I done so, with soil all around them, I suspect most would have survived.

We experienced a 2 year drought here. The nurseries were clearing out plants because they couldn't keep up with the watering. I was able to pick up some great plants throughout the summer and a few at the end of growing season which is October in Minnesota. I keep a space for wintering over plants. If they are getting root bound I will take them out of the pot, clean up the root ball and plant it. If not root bound, any potted plant buried in the ground seems to do just fine until Spring. Plants that I grow in decorative containers always winter over in a plain pot which I bury. I may amend the dirt in the Spring if needed. I have found that most plants are fairly tough. I have had irises in a pot with no dirt for 2 years and I see today they are still green...

I love this topic!! All of you are like me! I buy at all times, transplant at all times, divide at all times, and never follow the rules of when-tos. Your preserving of your plants pending winter's doom is great!

Thank you so much for sharing this tip! It's going to really come in handy.

Your walkway is so inviting. I will be attempting to organize a few of my plants into a garden path. Looks like you have alot of texture going on there. Should post in plant combinations to inspire others such as myself. Thanks for taking the time to share your overwintering ideas. Snowing again here. David Austin just shipped my roses. Hope it warms up a bit. Hate planting roses in a snow storm

This is called "heeling in". And it is always good to remind people about it. Well done.

This article here also recommends burying at an angle to keep the branches closer to the ground for additional protection from wind damage:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.c...

But for small perennials, that would be too complicated. For trees it may be worth doing it.

I use my vegetable patch for heeling in, a good winter use out of the space. Heeling in is not just for last-minute purchases, but perennial plants you keep in planters permanently to be sure of their survival.

When we were in Scotland, a few years ago, the gent who ran a B&B we stayed at had a wonderful rose garden. His climate was every bit as unfriendly to roses as my zone 3 gardens, and when I asked him how he managed to keep them going, he also 'heeled' in ... dug down and tipped them over for winter.

But heeling in for shrubs is not quite the same as burying perennial pots to keep potted root zones out of bitter wind and cold, I think, as it is more complicated for shrubs. In either case, the earth / soil provides more protection than leaving exposed to the weather.

I believe that is also the point to garden recommendations that you cannot safely plant perennials into an above-ground container or pot unless the perennial is at least hardy to one zone colder than that of your garden.

Unfortunately, I did not do this heeling in with my pots this past winter.
With some daylilies I think they died as I just left them in pots on the deck, thinking they were super hardy down to your zone, and that was 3 zones warmer away. Boy was I wrong. They were not small pots, they were quite big wooden-barrel planters too (hence me not wanting to bury those - too heavy).

The weird thing is with them, and the in-ground azaleas, was that they look like they survive the cold perfectly fine (still greenery poking out). It is when the weather gets a bit warmer that they seem to have a crisis and die.

They were all seedlings anyhow so I am not too fussed. But it was a learning experience not to be so lazy next time, or at least to line the inside of planters with styrofoam insulation in the future.

We live and learn. Eventually.

Just an update - you can see how well the potted perennials are growing, in just the past couple of weeks. When we stop hitting cold nights, I will dig the pots out and get ready to plant them into the garden border bed (permanent place).

Those look nice and healthy, Dianne.

I too was guilty of buying in advance of having space in the garden but because I had nowhere to put the plants I had nowhere to heel them in When I purchased in the Spring I repotted them all in the same soil they eventually would be buried in, usually in bigger pots. These would sit in the equivalent of a child's wading pool for months sometimes; I actually used $5 air mattress seconds - their valves didn't work - cut in to top and bottom, and used like two pool liners to hold a couple of inches of water. If some still had not found a home in a flower bed I would heel them in my potting area with left over dirt/compost/peat moss hilled up around the pots. Clearly none of my plant choices minded sitting in a little water but that should be considered before trying this.