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.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

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

On 18 Nov 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.


I have some tuberous begonias I inherited from my mother after she died
in 1993 as well as some "posh ones" I purchased from Fibrex Nursery a
few years ago.
I either dig them up, place in a tray of moist compost and bring
into our perspex roofed garage or bring the pot into the garage. Do not
let the compost go completely dry but certainly never wet either.
In spring when you see buds forming on the tubers repot, be careful
with watering until they are growing away strongly.


--
Regards.
Bob Hobden

On Wed, 18 Nov 2020 13:58:04 +0000, Martin Brown
Space is limited in the warm, light and dry.
Frost free has more space but not a great deal of light.

I over winter approx 400 fuchsia plants, (I grow a lot to sell to rise
money for the local Childrens Hospice) Most of these will produce
cutting mateial for next years plants, in a cold but well insulated
greenhouse, bubblewrap and fleece always to hand

Fost free is much more important than light, at this time of year,
most will be semi dormant, not a lot of watering, but they must not go
dust dry, picking up the pot,and feeling the weight is a good methord,
don't worry if the top of the compost is dry its the rootball you need
to keep alive.

I have a few that I really don't want to lose, and they have their
pots, planted within a larger pot of compost, so that the rootball has
another two inches of insulation to protect it in every direction

We have had ten years of mild winters, The wise plan for the worst,
and hope for the best!

On 19/11/2020 22:42, Derek wrote:
We have had ten years of mild winters, The wise plan for the worst,
and hope for the best!

It's a La Niña year, and could well be very cold. Be Prepared!

--
Karl Marx said religion is the opium of the people.
But Marxism is the crack cocaine.

On Fri, 20 Nov 2020 11:31:19 The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Karl Marx said religion is the opium of the people.

No he didn't!

In a gardening newsgroup you ought to get it right!

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

In article ,
Derek wrote:

Fost free is much more important than light, at this time of year,
most will be semi dormant, not a lot of watering, but they must not go
dust dry, picking up the pot,and feeling the weight is a good methord,
don't worry if the top of the compost is dry its the rootball you need
to keep alive.

I have a few that I really don't want to lose, and they have their
pots, planted within a larger pot of compost, so that the rootball has
another two inches of insulation to protect it in every direction

We have had ten years of mild winters, The wise plan for the worst,
and hope for the best!

And DO remember that waterlogging kills mas many plants as frost;
even if not always the same ones!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 20/11/2020 13:38, David Rance wrote:
On Fri, 20 Nov 2020 11:31:19 The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Karl Marx said religion is the opium of the people.

No he didn't!
Yes, he did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_of_the_people

In a gardening newsgroup you ought to get it right!

Why?
David



--
"Nature does not give up the winter because people dislike the cold."

― Confucius

On Sat, 21 Nov 2020 03:08:27 The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 20/11/2020 13:38, David Rance wrote:

On Fri, 20 Nov 2020 11:31:19 The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Karl Marx said religion is the opium of the people.

No he didn't!

Yes, he did.

As he used the word metaphorically then it is more correctly translated
as "opiate of the people (or masses)" (according to my Langenscheidt
dictionary [Opium fürs Volk - opiate for the people]).

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

In article ,
David Rance wrote:
On Sat, 21 Nov 2020 03:08:27 The Natural Philosopher wrote:

As he used the word metaphorically then it is more correctly translated
as "opiate of the people (or masses)" (according to my Langenscheidt
dictionary [Opium fürs Volk - opiate for the people]).

Actually, no, according to the OED. Interestingly, the word opiate is
much older, but primarily referred to a medicine; in the sense of a
stupefying agent, the word is opium, and dates from 1608.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 21/11/2020 09:25, David Rance wrote:
On Sat, 21 Nov 2020 03:08:27 The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 20/11/2020 13:38, David Rance wrote:

On Fri, 20 Nov 2020 11:31:19 The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Karl Marx said religion is the opium of the people.

Â*No he didn't!

Yes, he did.

As he used the word metaphorically then it is more correctly translated
as "opiate of the people (or masses)" (according to my Langenscheidt
dictionary [Opium fürs Volk - opiate for the people]).

David

Well in the end he wrote it in German, and that is the usually accepted
translation.

--
Renewable energy: Expensive solutions that don't work to a problem that
doesn't exist instituted by self legalising protection rackets that
don't protect, masquerading as public servants who don't serve the public.

On Fri, 20 Nov 2020 15:03:12 -0000 (UTC), (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

Getting back to the point of the post!


And DO remember that waterlogging kills mas many plants as frost;
even if not always the same ones!

If fuchsias are prepared for winter, now, chances are they will quite
happily go semi dormant, and need no futher care, ....until
January/Febuary, just as it gets to the coldest point of the year(said
I believe to be on average, second week of febuary) and a trip to the
greenhouse is not something to look forward too, but by then the pots
have started to dry out, compost is dust dry, and thats when more
fuschsias will die, through neglect!

On 19/11/2020 22:42, Derek wrote:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2020 13:58:04 +0000, Martin Brown
Space is limited in the warm, light and dry.
Frost free has more space but not a great deal of light.

I over winter approx 400 fuchsia plants, (I grow a lot to sell to rise
money for the local Childrens Hospice) Most of these will produce
cutting mateial for next years plants, in a cold but well insulated
greenhouse, bubblewrap and fleece always to hand

Fost free is much more important than light, at this time of year,
most will be semi dormant, not a lot of watering, but they must not go
dust dry, picking up the pot,and feeling the weight is a good methord,
don't worry if the top of the compost is dry its the rootball you need
to keep alive.

Curious follow-up on this. I didn't quite get them inside in time and
the normal green leaved ones all went yellow and now the stems have
dropped off the tubers looking a bit the worse for wear. However, the
ones with dark red leaves all appear to be doing fine and still growing.

They were all together and brought in at the same time so I am surprised
by this apparent difference in cold hardiness with leaf colour.

The fuchsias are all still in flower. Pelargoniums still flowering
outside although for how much longer is uncertain - there was a
borderline air frost last night and a hard ground frost still in the
shade. Though it is bright and sunny today with clear blue arctic air.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On Tue, 1 Dec 2020 12:05:17 +0000, Martin Brown
wrote:


Curious follow-up on this. I didn't quite get them inside in time and
the normal green leaved ones all went yellow and now the stems have
dropped off the tubers looking a bit the worse for wear.

Leaves quite normal,

stems have dropped off the tubers

Why are you seeing the root ball should be safely buried?