many plants have a winter rosette ... all winter long ... even under feet of snow.. in my MI ...

try to NEVER fix that which is not broken ...

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=winter+rosette+on+plants&t=ffsb&iax=images&iar=images&ia=images

They are all outdoors but some in a sheltered spot and some in my unattached unheated garage. The garage has many unsealed areas and a broken window so it shouldn't be much warmer.

Is there much light in the garage? Unless they are totally dormant ie no green at all they need light. Can they go outside?

There's some going through the window and some indirect. But shouldn't I be doing the opposite to encourage dormancy? I can keep the garage open for light since they're all in front of the garage door but then they can suffer from freezing temperatures that go down below - 20 degrees F. Especially Cuz they're in pots

Many people use an unheated garage or porch but you could heel-in the pots if you were concerned. If they are small pots or immature plants I would personally heel-in but I am in a colder zone.

Many things act to trigger dormancy - heat, light, lack of water. Unless you have very tender stock, keep them all outside and stop fretting.

Not sure by what you mean by heeling in but I assume sinking it in the ground. I did that for most of my 4 in square pot perennials including newly rooted cuttings. It's under a huge overhang so it's gets no rain so winter rot won't be a concern anymore. Although I do go back and sprinkle water on them if they get bone dry. My remaining perennials can't be sunk in because no more space under the overhang. The ones in my garage are in larger sized pots but alot of them were newly potted/repotted this year so not established yet. The list of potted plants include many conifers and they don't like winter sun or wind so thats why I close the garage. Im thinking I will take out only the larger potted perennials out of the garage and bring it against the north side wall of my foundation.

"The list of potted plants include many conifers and they don't like winter sun or wind so thats why I close the garage."

I think you are overestimating the harm that could come to them. If conifers were routinely bothered by winter sun and wind, no one would have them planted in the garden!! Is there nowhere else you can stash the pots close to the house or garage that would provide a modicum of protection? If you can't heel them in - and that's a common horticultural term you should know for both your current work and your future career - then group them together out of direct sun and mulch around them well with straw or dried leaves. They need light, not a dark garage.

There you go worrying unnecessarily about rot again, H. It's very unlikely that your plants will rot. But being under an overhang means they could dry out unless you water them. And I don't mean 'sprinkling' that won't supply sufficient moisture to the roots. On the other hand, if you would just put them in the garden you could simply forget about them.

Yes, as repeatedly expressed, these plants grow in nature, without the help of a human to cart them around and protect them from the elements. Chill pill!

Everybody knows that plants can't stand freeze-thaw cycles and below freezing temperatures. That is why New York is actually a desert. Central Park is photoshopped. The NYBG is made up of silk plants, with an army of people who come in after closing to rearrange flowers on shrubs, recolor leaves for fall, and add extension branches to trees.

A lot of perennials in my garden push out a bit of green that you can see if you brush aside dead foliage/mulch/leaves. I figure they know what they are doing and why and leave them be until spring cleanup. They do just fine.

My garage has windows on all sides. It gets real bright inside during the day. I did that for my conifers all winter last year and all did just fine. And besides, someone from this forum last year (forgot who) told me to keep it in a garage and provide it minimal light so I took his/her suggestion. I'm not really concerned about that though, just mentioned it because they are winterized in the same location as my perennials. Its also nice when you have a garage to store these things because deer and rabbit destroy everything in my yard. Some warm days I keep my garage open and place a temporary fence in front of it.

Maybe I worded it wrong. When I mean sprinkle I mean not soaking it with a hose but rather watering it efficiently from a small watering can which drains down all the way to the bottom. These are 4 inch square pots. The thyme grower whom I bought the plants from told me these thymes should stay completely dry during the winter, not even one watering he says. So for plants like these they need overhangs.

They may do fine in nature but by potting them they are already losing that status. Potted plants require more care than in ground and even in ground ones need more care than wild ones. Plants in nature adapt to the specific location from a young age. I see maples, oaks, self seeded callery pears, tsuga canadensis at my workplace all growing as tall trees in a wooded swamp constantly in a body of water. While these trees are not naturally aquatic they've adapted to it because they were born in there. I think of it as that.

Oh how wonderful. I've never been to NYBG or central park but guess I won't ever go there, thanks for the pre warning.

Wildhaven, my irises in my garden did that too but these are potted plants I'm talking about. I let all my inground plants let be.

If the Thyme were outdoors the no watering advice would be accurate. It would receive rain and or snow. But in a pot in a garage it will need you to provide moisture.

When you receive advice try to think about context and the reasoning behind it. You seem to have a tendency to grasp snippets of information, without considering the context, and then to take that advice as gospel under all circumstances. Gardening isn't a series of absolute rules. And hardy perennials do not need constant interventions. You've told us you've been gardening a few years. Many people responding to you have been at it for many decades.

If they couldn't cope with the weather, how are you ever going to plant them? (just something to think about) or how do other people every grow them (outside)?

I gardened solely in containers for a number of years while living in an apartment. Other than choosing varieties hardy enough to withstand winter in a pot, they got no special care or attention than the ones I have in the ground now. I suppose that's different for very finicky varieties, but the average perennials just don't care, I figure.

Actually, I have several plants in pots now too, even though I have a full garden to play in. I did move them up against the house to be out of the wind, but they're otherwise at the full mercy of the weather. I would go and get a picture for you, but it's raining. They'll all be fine, just like I'm sure yours will.

Yep, my whole garden is a pot garden...and sometimes, the little clay pots (containing treasures such as auriculas, lewisias, violets and many tiny bulbs, freeze completely solid for days... while the tenderest, such are citrus is moved into the greenhouse...and these are invariably the ones most at risk (entirely due to my erratic care of the plants under cover)...while those left at the mercy of weather generally manage far, far better (although they often look in a sorry state around February).

Heruga, I tried to find something where I could be on topic. How are you handling overwintering your Artemisia princess? I planted a root cutting from my potted yamogi into the ground a couple months ago for insurance, because the beast in the pot was already too much to deal with. I was not shocked after prying it out of the pot with a crowbar, to see that it roots had already circled the inside of the pot several dozens of times, and there were about a thousand growing buds within the tight mass. It wants to take over the world. At least thankfully, it didn't bust the pot. It might take an axe to render it compostable.

Sorry for late response. I am actually putting my cuttings in a milk crate full of mulch and stored in my unheated, unattached garage. I didn't want to put it in a holeless bin or container since that'll make it completely enclosed with no air flow to the potted cuttings. After going through absolute madness with these artemisia this past spring I will not be planting these in the ground loose. I will make sure to install a root barrier before I do so. I agree they are just too wild.