On 18/11/2020 13:58, Martin Brown wrote:
I came by (they survived winter) some quite nice begonias and fuchsias
whilst recycling compost from the VH hanging baskets this year. They
have done very well and I was wondering how best to over winter them.

They clearly have tubers and advice seems to vary as to whether they
*must* have a winter dormancy period or can be grown year round as a
houseplant. They do still look quite pretty and in flower but if they
are to survive the winter in growth I will need to bring them in PDQ.

My suspicion is that they are semitropical under storey plants and would
grow year round subject to light and heat. Same I guess for fuchsias.

Since they survived last year being totally ignored and up in hanging
baskets perhaps it is enough to put them in a dryish sheltered spot.
What experience do others have of overwintering tender plants outdoors?

Space is limited in the warm, light and dry.
Frost free has more space but not a great deal of light.

My experience is like yours - begonias and pelargoniums surviving last
year's admittedly mild winter. I even had a scaevola survive! All were
outside in tubs mainly well away from the house. This year I've dug up
the begonia tubers and put them in pots in the just frost-free
greenhouse. Similarly some zonal pelargonium cuttings, which seem to
root ok over winter (most of the time). Others I'll leave outside to
take their chances, as they are easily replaced. This year I'm keeping a
"Cerise" calceolaria in the conservatory (minimum of around 10 deg C)
because it might be a bit more frost tender, and also because there seem
to be hundreds of tiny self-seedlings around it. I'm also keeping a
pelargonium in the conservatory as that has dozens of the calceolaria
seedlings around it too.

I think you're right to keep them "growing" over winter as they are not
plants which go dormant in habitat. They'll get a bit etiolated, but it
should be minimal if they are kept cool, but frost-free.

By the way some fuchsias - particularly those related to or bred from F.
magellanica - are pretty hardy and will survive several degrees of
frost, even if they lose all their leaves. I'm not sure about those bred
from Bolivian/Colombian/Ecuadorian species, though, even if from high
altitudes.

--

Jeff