Over Wintering Your Hostas ... That Are In Pots
- John Plant
- 7 days ago
- 4 min read
We are now well into the season of early morning frosts and consistently low temperatures, usually hovering around 2 or 3 degrees Celsius or even lower. Often accompanied by some wet and windy weather.
It is not ideal conditions for us gardeners to venture outside and take on a few tasks. However, you can’t just ignore Winter. There are plenty of things to do out there.
Even though all our Hostas are now dormant they still need to be looked after. Admittedly now is not as busy as in the growing season. So, the ideal time to all the essential ‘Winter’ maintenance.
One of those jobs is to take a little more care for all Hostas overwintered in their pots & containers. Each & every pot is inspected for a variety of reasons. Some may need to be moved on into a bigger container; some will be happy where they are.
Topdressing!
We pot on where needed, and top dress the rest. Top dressing is one of those jobs that everyone could do. With our sales pots, stock & display, there seems to be a need to top up in nearly every case. We tend to use a combination of spent compost mixed with leaf mould. This is put on the top of the pots to protect the top of the pots, from the worst of the frost, especially where roots are showing on the surface. Hostas, once established, are hardy to the winter weather, but a little helping-hand won’t hurt.
Labelling!
Why not ensure that ALL your labels are readable, present & correct. It’s always good to keep a record of what you have, and the labels are an important part of that. Remember, labels become faded, brittle and easily break. They don’t last forever. Do you have anything written down? The most questions we get asked are about Hosta identification due to illegible or missing labels so why not use these winter months to have a relabelling session or two? For more information about labelling, please refer to our previous blogs about labels and winter care.
Inspecting your pots!
Leaving you Hostas that are in pots, pretty-well where they are for the winter if fine for most. Hostas in pots will be quite happy where they are, provided they are lifted from a hard surface using feet or an alternative, to give extra drainage & prevent rotting. This is an all-year-round requirement.
When inspecting each pot, we are looking for overwintering critters like slugs & snails. They love to hide on the bottoms of pots, so by lifting you can remove and dispose of them.
Drainage!
Any Hosta pots sited on a hard surface like paving, need to be raised, to offer a gap between the pot and the hard surface, giving a better chance of drainage. Lifting can be done using a number of items from plastic bottle tops right through to expensive terracotta feet. If you can’t do this, move them to a surface that will drain, such as a gravel area.
Many of our display pots are of Terracotta and often succumb to extreme winter weather conditions. Having these raised off the floor will help them last longer
All of our miniatures, stock and sales have a top dressing of horticultural grit. This stops the foliage getting splashed with soil when watered in the growing season but it also gives some protection from frost in the winter. Ensure these are kept covered with grit. I also presents well too.
Our Yorkshire Hostas are quite hardy as we often get plenty of snow! They will all be fine until the spring, when the seasons cycle starts again.
General Jobs!
Once my Hostas go to sleep, the hard work begins with correct labelling, getting all the sales stock into alphabetical order and applying any winter protection they may need. It’s always good to have plenty of fleece at hand for the odd night where the temperature drops dramatically. Not always necessary but is helpful.
Trees do not always drop, all of their leaves, in at the same time, so keeping the tops of the pots clear is necessary. We simply use a small hand-held blower for the job. This is something you should also do. The leaves will start to decompose on top of your Hosta crown and may cause damage such as crown rot.
Clean and tidy is the name of the game, and it will help to keep you a little warmer on those cold days.
Don't forget our Black Friday event for 4 days only. Starts Friday 28th November until Midnight on 1st December. We will be offering a 20% discount on all Hostas.
Use code BLACK at checkout to receive your discount.
In the unlikely event of either very inclement weather, or finding nothing to do, you can always read my blogs, there are now nearly on the website.
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John Plant
Rewela Hostas
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