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Can Hypertufa Survive Outside Over Winter?

11 years ago

(Information provided by Hypertufa Forum contributor GardenChicken:)

Here in Calgary the average winter temperatures are generally several degrees below freezing. We have regular freeze/thaw cycles throughout winter and occasionally week-long cold snaps as cold as 40°F. When a Chinook rolls in our temperature has been known to rise 54°F in as little as four hours. This causes a great deal of melting snow, which promptly becomes ice when the temperature plummets a few hours later.

I have two troughs that remain outside comletely full of soil. The older trough is aout 9" x 18" x 7". The walls are just over 1" thick. It was made using fibreglass fibres, perlite, peat and cement. The second trough is 20" x 30" x 13", with 1 ½" thick walls. It was made using perlite, peat and cement. This one has chicken wire in the walls. Both have drainage holes.

My hypertufa is left outside year-round and there has never been a problem with cracking or breaking. It gets no special treatment, no cozy cover-ups, and none of it has ever been sealed in any way. It seems to make no difference what recipe is used, or if it has been reinforced.

Once properly cured, hypertufa really is freeze/thaw-proof.

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I live in a similar zone to you and have many plants that I overwinter in hanging baskets, outside, still hanging out there all winter. They do require care in checking moisture levels and mulching well over the winter or they won't survive - as tapla and Joe point. The key, as tapla says, is to survive zone 5 or below (two USDA grades below your current one). What you don't mention is how much sun you get which would help direct suggestions, and what size baskets. In addition to the plants already recommended - depending on your light - you might consider strawberries, the dreaded barberry, dwarf chamaecyparis (root pruning at regular intervals recomended), hardy native ferns, kinnikinnick, wintergreen, cymbalaria muralis (trailer, grow from seed - even if it dies back it reseeds sometimes too well), dwarf blueberries, cranberry (trailer!). I've grown on all of these, and kept them happy even, in 16" baskets of the type you describe. However, I do treat them to tapla's 5-1-1 mix, and repot with fresh mix every year. I look forward to hearing what you choose.
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