10 replies to this topic

[egan]

Hi,
How do you keep your darlingtonias alive in winter ? How much do you water ? Are they outside ? How big are your pots ? Do they freeze ? Do you place them in direction of the north or the south ?
Regards, Boris.

[Megs]

Mine are outside. Maybe they are easier here in summer because of our relatively cool summers?



Martin

[Alexis]

They are very hardy plants which can take pretty much anything you can throw at them.

Mine lives in a greenhouse, out of water over winter. It freezes occasionally.

[egan]

They don't really like when their roots are frozen no ?

[Alexis]

They don't mind. In mountainous Oregon it gets very cold in winter.

[Susan]

Mine are outside and currently under a layer of snow too.  The sphagnum I grow them in freezes solid with no apparent problems.  Mine are in either big pots or a bath and sink so perhaps a tiny pot wouldn't cope as well.  I think the lowest temp recorded in the back garden was -20 degrees C in the 90s sometime.  Same plant still going strong though.  

Susan

[Jefforever]

What I do is let them freeze maybe once or twice. If I think there is going to be another freeze, I bring them in.

This is necessary because if they begin to awake from dormancy and receive another freeze, they actually die. I've lost about 3 plants this way.  

Not only can they freeze, but the most common clones available around come from milder climates around the Oregon coast. Only recently were the mountainous varieties available to the masses.

Good luck with dormancy.  

[diva]

outside all year with no protection from the weather and given tapwater if i'm running low on rain and it still grows like a weed, i did lose one once when i put it in the greenhouse. for me there tough as old boots but then i don't move them from the cold outdoors into the comparative warmth of the greenhouse every time it looks a bit dodgy outside

[egan]

I guess it is important in culture to reduce the watering in winter as well as it is important to do it for the sarracenias ?

[Megs]

Mine is standing with a water level up to the soil level.

Martin

[-=Joel=-]

Kept mine outside this year. They have spent weeks frozen in their trays and look fine at the moment.