Pot them up,give them a little water until the real end of your growing season,put them on the North side of the house covered with mulch. Or keep in an unheated garage.You could overwinter them in the house,but they will get spindley and could blow the bloom season on them,but they will live for certain.

Betsy

The advice above is good. You could also leave them bareroot and keep them in an area where it stays very cool but not freezing and with good air circulation. Then in the spring plant them in the soil. The key is to keep them dormant by keeping them cool and dry until you want them to start growing.

They are probably not that expensive, so I would just plant them. Maybe cover during the first hard frosts. Hems are remarkable for surviving. It's just not worth it, for me, to pot up stuff. You could put bricks or stones around them if the frost heaves them. I have had very small plants survive heaving up and being planted back. This is the lazy person's solution!

Thanks, everyone; I think I'll heed a bit of everyone's advice, and pot them up, and plop them into our recently-tilled veggie patch as a 'holding bin' which is on the North Side of the house. I'll mulch them over good, too.

Just out of curiosity, why the North Side? We live up on a hill and have a literal 'back 40' that the winds RIP across all winter. It's the coldest side of the property, and wide open with no trees, either.

I was wondering that, too. The north side of my house is not where I'd choose to hold things over, especially things in pots.

I know I am two zones south of you, but I have planted mid-Nov or a tad later with success. I think it depends on the plant and how your winter is, just my opinion. If it were me, I don't like to hold them over in pots...so, I'd go with the planting them out and mulching very well.

With perennials in general, I have heard several noted experts say you can plant as long as the ground is workable...don't know how that might apply in your situation.

Hazarding a guess - the north side can hold onto the cold and dark longer? No rays of sunshine to warm up a spot and prematurely break a dormancy? My north side gets huge snow drifts in a normal winter - great insulation.

I ordered 6 yesterday that will be shipped in about 10 days.I plan to pot them and hold them over winter in a unheated utillity room.It gets a little heat from a hot water heater but not very much.I done the same thing last October too,ordered about 6 and put them in pots till spring,then planted them outside and they all lived and bloomed.Maybe beginers luck?

Jean