Could someone please help us to determine the best method to cover our banana plants and our other more exotic plants for the winter and against frost? We also have some ferns (can't remember the name) from AUstralia. They resemble our native ferns except they grown from a trunck that resembles a palm. Much appreciated and hopefully we have covered them properly. We used bubble wrap first, not too tightly and then we covered them with several layers of burlap. Louise Boake
It all depends on where you are; we are in de south west of france ( zone 7-8). A banana plant will do with a leaf or fern protection on the ground, if you want him to rise higher next season; cut the leafs after the first frost wrap the trunks in ferns and pack the hole package up with plastic. I got my bananatrees up to 4 to 5 m in summer, if not they reach just to 2/ 2.5 m In general I cover with fern (bragon) and plastic or if possible with big leaves. With evergreen plants its more complicated while the are in need of light. I cover those up with plastic when it realy starts to freese.
In the winter, to protect your plants with wrappings of one sort or another will be helpful, and the other strategy is to monitor the water in the ground around these plants ( especially the tree fern)as they will not tolerate excess water, liking to be on the dry side instead. Sufficient air circulation through the protective wrap is something you should strive to achieve, some people rig overhead tarps so that water will not seep inside the protective wrapping. It seems that there are a number of different methods out there to explore. Have a look at the following website, specifically for tree ferns: www.angelfire.com/bc/eucalyptus/treeferns/tfprotection.html This is a big topic and it is the resource that we were looking at here. Good Luck.
