Hi, I have the following plants in 1 gallon outdoor plastic containers: a few native plants (thimbleberry, snowberry), a miniature rose, hosta, and cedar. What can I do to prevent them from freezing and dying over the winter? Thanks, Terri
Hi Terri--I've kept lots of plants outside in 1 gal. over the winter. Your plants all sound fairly coldhardy, so that might not be a problem for you. What does kill the plants is root damage from excess water (rot) and the freezing of that saturated rootball (slicing/dicing of roots by ice formation/thawing). I keep many containers on a bed of sand which helps to wick excess water from the bottom of containers...this still amazes me how helpful it is in overwintering. For your few pots, I would just keep them up against the house under the eave overhang to avoid excess water in the medium. Most or all of your plants will be happiest in soil that is just moist...mustn't dry right out but better on the dry side than "swimming" in water that will be hard on those roots.
Most of those you've mentioned could freeze solid over winter and probably wouldn't die - they are tough cookies! So if you do ensure they have decent drainage, they should come through with flying colours.
