Frost proofing plants & pots
Clarington
Posts: 4,949
Another simple question for you! (Sick of the sight of me yet?)
I have a small bay tree (i.e. under 50 cm in height) in a pot (raised off the gravel by feet) by my front door (sheltered both under the eaves and on two sides by wall) and an ever disappearing house moving date that means this tree (Aldi special so don't know much about it other than bay tree) will have to stay outside for the forseeable future and endure the weather.
I've heard that you can protect plants in pots by bubble wrapping them but I can't find an idiots guide explaining exactly what you need to do. Do I just wrap the bubble wrap around the pot or does it also need to go over the soil (which currently has slate on which I fear has little thermal properties!) Or even underneath the pot? Do I also put something over the plant (right now I'm considering making a bamboo stick frame and going crazy with some cellophane but can I get away with just tucking it up at night with a bubblewrap blanket?)
Thanks ever so much!
Posts
They're pretty hardy. Your house and eaves will give a lot of protection. Unless the temperatures drop very low for a long time you should be OK. Have you got a garage or shed to put it in when it's really cold? There aren't many really cold days per winter.
Bubble wrap around the pot is to protect the roots.
In the sticks near Peterborough
If bubble wrapping is confusing, you can submerge the pot in any sheltered spot in the garden where it will overwinter without the roots freezing.
There was a Gardeners World episode recently, where Joe Swift visited a garden in Bristol with tropical plants (episode 27 this one on iplayer---- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03dz6kk) It showed how the guy there protected his tender tropical plants from snow and frost. To protect one plant, he did make a cage from chicken wire and stuff it with straw around one plant.
I think your bay tree should be hardy enough, but it wouldn't hurt to protect the pot from freezing. Those pot feet should help and maybe a nice bit of garden fleece around the base.