Plants I Overwintered Inside

I said I'd show you how the plants did that I took inside for the winter last year. One is a great success, and the other is moderate.

The real winner is Sedum mexicanum 'Lemon Coral.' I ended up with three pots of it after dividing the clump I had in the fall. You may remember that this all started with a sad little $2 half-dead sprig. I put one of them back where I had it last year. The new single clump is as big as what I had here last year.

And the other two clumps of it. This one looks very nice filling in between the rocks.

And it contrasts nicely with the bronze ajuga. This is definitely worth bringing in for the winter. The color stays this bright yellow-green all season, and it quickly fills spaces where I tuck it in.

The other one is Sedum linare 'Sea Urchin.' The color is interesting, and I bought a very full pot of this last year, not realizing it isn't super hardy. (I did know the lemon coral wasn't). Here's a reminder of how great Sea Urchin (the green-white-pink spiky one) looked all season last year paired with Sedum elecombeanum.



I also split that clump into three pots for the winter. While both kinds of plant got leggy, the Sea Urchin got leggy and sad, and then sort of died back. Not completely, but the plants I could put out in the spring were not very big.

The one really interesting thing is that I had left a little bit of the original plant just to see if it might survive. The tag said it was hardy to 30 degrees- so, tender- but I thought it was worth a shot. That piece I left out survived. It was tiny this spring, but I had only left a tiny bit. Here's what that one looks like now. This is the same place as the above picture. Not filled in nearly as nicely.

So, then I still had three small plants to put other places. This is the most successful one.

The other two are still alive, but struggling.

And the very smallest one is not really any bigger than when I put it out.

As you can imagine, the small ones really don't show up at all in a garden of this size.

But, I will bring them in again this fall and see if I can end up with happier plants in the spring.

One web site says it can survive down to 14 degrees, so for sure I'll leave a couple of spots of it outside this winter. Maybe I can remember to insulate those spots with some extra leaves.

I gave away the fishbone cactus. It did not like being outside. I still have a little struggling aloe 'Pink Blush', but it doesn't like being out in the sun either.

Part of my sorting/cleaning project involves a place to keep plants over winter where they will be happier.

In other news: I worked on that project a lot this afternoon. Worked on computer stuff and editing in the morning. Very little gardening. The sun was HOT. I'm doing some garden record-keeping when I don't play in the dirt.

See Mid-Winten Garden Report