Well, it depends where you are. Here in the northeast(Z6), it's an annual... doesnt survive our winters. You might want to post your zone

one lesson learned.. over the years ... sometimes things survive.. when left to ma nature.. and then as soon as i tried to love them to death and tried to outwit ma nature.. lol.. total loss ... lol ... good luck with that.. whatever happens.. you will learn something ...

the usual idea.. is to get something dormant.. and then keep it dormant ... plants fail when they go in and out of dormancy over winter ... no sense of humor about that ... lol ...

so your goal is to achieve tempering the extremes ... first by covering surrounding soil with mulch ... to keep the soil from warming on sunny days .....

and then try to stop drying winter winds .... this can be the hard part .... tough days include sunny warmish days ... then freezing cold at night ... again.. plant tissue thaws.. and then refreezes at night ... if that happens too often.. the exposed plant tissue freeze dries and dies ...

keep in mind.. if you protect something like the bottom few inches.. we really dont care what happens above ... it can resprout in spring.. down low.. and regenerate from dormant buds ...

this is all based on my MI experience ... but it shouldnt matter ..in general in warmer zones ... its just a matter of the extremes you are dealing with ...

btw.. many things we up north deal with as annuals .. not winter hardy.. are actually perennial in their native range .... apparently you are on the borderline of this... and you are left to what ma nature throws at you this winter .... if its a real cold one.. most likely.. no matter what you do they will fail ... but if its a real mild one... its almost just as hard ... especially if they come out of dormancy in some warm mid winter spell ...

ken

If neglecting it in the past worked, why change? Just curious. If you're like I am, not in a snowy zone, but one that can get wet, "winterizing plants" too much can actually kill them. That part, I am serious about.

ETA: ken and I posted at the same time :)

I am zone 5 and it seems to survive the winter. In some cases, some of it doesn't look too healthy and can be trimmed back in the spring, not unlike roses.

Some discussion lately suggests that annualness should not be based on whether or not the plant freezes to death. Apparently annuals grow once, drop seeds and dies no matter where it is growing. No amount of care or special handling, such as bringing it in for the winter, can get it to grow again. Personally, I believe Dusty Miller is a short lived perennial because it seems to grow for only several years.

I have also seen a lot of discussion arguing what annual/perennial means.

Here is a pic of what I planted by seed in summer of 2017. Some are 20 inches tall.

The question is whether or not to cut them back now for better winter survival or leave them until the spring to see what survives. I could section off the bed and treat each differently to run the experiment.

As an after thought: Elephant ears and Cannas will not survive the winter around here yet no one considers them as annual. I do see that Gladiola (Gladioli? Gladiolus?)) bulbs have been coming back for the last 5 years without my having to dig them up.

Dusty miller, Jacobaea maritima (syn. Senecio cineraria) is a half hardy perennial subshrub. Depending on variety - and there are many - it can survive winters as low as zone 4. I wouldn't cut back until late winter/early spring as severely cold temps can damage or kill off any foliage. And mulching can't hurt, although I would use a light, airy mulch like pine straw......nothing heavy or that will compact down and hold moisture over the crown. As with most Mediterranean plants, good drainage and no excess moisture will increase chances of survival.

There really should be NO arguments about what is an 'annual' or a 'perennial'. Those terms have very specific botanical definitions unrelated to cold hardiness. An annual is a plant that completes its life cycle (from seed germination through growth, flowering and then seed development) in a single growing season. A perennial is any plant that has a life span longer than 2 years, although the term is most often used in association with herbaceous (die back to the ground) perennials. A perennial does not magically become an annual just because it is being grown in a location or climate that prevents overwintering........it is just a tender or non hardy perennial!! Some gardeners and catalogs refer to them as 'temperennials' :-)

I believe a lot of the confusion is how these plants are marketed and sold. A great many non-hardy or tender perennials are sold labeled as "annuals" or "annual bedding plants" as that is how they are used in colder winter location gardens. They only last a single growing season and are unable to overwinter in the cold, so they are therefore treated as annuals even though in more temperate or milder winter locations they may return each year very reliably.

btw, plants that produce bulbs, tubers, corms, etc. - eg. cannas and elephant ears - are always perennials. Some are just not very cold tolerant or winter hardy in many locations.

I guess my accidentally having them in a raised bed helped them survive with the good drainage. Yes, I will mulch them with 3" long pine needles, I get them by the cubic foot around here. I might even build a wind protection around them this year.

"If neglecting it in the past worked, why change? Just curious. "

Not a matter of neglect, as I have done in the past. This time, I grew them from seed and placed them in a raised nursery bed. They survived the winter. I just never got around to transplanting them into the final beds.

That I am seeing is that they have well developed root systems this year and more so next year. Some will be cut back this fall as a test and all will be mulched.

It is becoming an interesting experiment.