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Northern Gardening

Fall Planting -- too late?

17 years ago

Hi...I ordered perennials for Fall planting and they just arrived yesterday. Here in Timmins, Ontario we already had frost...right now temperatures being 5 degrees celcius and -4 celcius overnight (on average). Am I too late to plant? Some of my perennials are: windflowers, astiblles, geranium, giant snowball bush, raspberries.

What so I do if it is too late to plant?

Thanks for you help.

Gloria

Comments (5)

Laurie_z3_MB
17 years ago
Gloria, it is getting pretty late in the season for planting. Are these perennials in pots? Or bare root? If they're bare root, then I doubt they would make the winter being planted outside. If they're potted, then they may have a chance outside. If it were me in your shoes, I'd plant them up and keep them inside for the winter. I'm doing that with some iris and daylilies now. They're in a sunny window and doing fine. Or another possibility, would be to pot them up and stick them in a cold room, or fridge for the winter. They would have a much better shot at surviving cool temperatures, versus -40 temperatures outside.

Laurie
mitzu
Original Author
17 years ago
Hi Laurie....the perennials are in bags...with bottomless kind-of pots. The snowball bush is in a bag...root ball? as well as the raspberry. I do have a cold room and a cold porch. In the porch they'd get light, but not in the cold room. Which is better?

Thanks for your help ...I really appreciate it!

Gloria
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Laurie_z3_MB
17 years ago
As long as they're dormant, they won't need any light. I would pick the colder of the two, unless your porch goes down below freezing. Probably the ideal temperature would be a degree or two above freezing. Would either place offer that?
balsam
17 years ago
Hello Ladies,

I'm new to this forum, but I do have a suggestion that may be useful to you.

I've planted perennials/roses in late Oct/Nov. and they survived nicely - better that I expected. Here's what I did:

Came across a clearance sale at a garden centre in October and bought about 20 roses and a few spireas. Now, these were all proven hardy varieties for our area (zone 4b/5a NB). All were in 1 or 2 gallon black plastic pots. Brought them home, dug a deep trench (about 30 cm) in my garden and planted them, pots and all, in the trench. Backfilled all the soil, then added more soil so that I had a little mounded row and the soil covered the pot tops up to the branches. Once the leaves were all gone, I mulched them with straw, almost covering the entire plant/bush. They stayed snug and warm (or cold?) in their temporary home and every one of them bloomed this year. Of course, I redistributed them to better locations in the spring. We even had a very open winter (almost no snow cover), but they survived nicely.

I've also overwintered extra perennials this way - plant the pots right in the garden. Works great! Keep in mind, I've only done this with things I know are hardy here, though. Hope this will help and good luck.
Pudge 2b
17 years ago
I've done the same as Balsam with potted plants and also had success, however Gloria's plants are not potted. I would suggest the same as Laurie (and curse the place that sent them so late - hope they were an excellent sale!)

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