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Winter care of my bog garden
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Posted by ccoombs1 7B SC (My Page) on Wed, Oct 10, 07 at 15:08
| I planted a bog garden this year for pitchers, VFTs and a couple hardy sundews. I am reading on line that several of the varieties are hardy to zone 8 and I am in zone 7B. I don't want to lose them and bringing them inside is not an option. Can I mulch them with pine straw? Should I wait until they go dormate then cut them back and mulch? It gets cold here....sometimes in the twenties and occasionally in the teens, but not for an extended period. thanks. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Winter care of my bog garden
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| Hello Ccoombs1, Mulching with pine needles would be just fine. Since your plants are in a simulated bog garden in your yard, they are protected more from cold than they would be in pots. The zone differences can be made up with mulching and plastic tarps in winter to protect the plants from the lowest temperatures. Wait for the plants to go dormant first, that way they will not die from lack of light, then, before any extreme cold gets to them, mulch them. |
RE: Winter care of my bog garden
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| so once they get hit by frost and start dying back, I can remove the foliage and cover them? We don't usually get extreme cold temps until mid january, altough we will bet below freezing way before then. Thanks. |
RE: Winter care of my bog garden
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| Pine needles and the big bales of peat are what some growers in the north use as mulching for Sarracenias and VFT's. You're right about the right latitude and climate for them, so you should be in good shape. Follow Mutants Hybrid's advice. Which sundews do you have? Rotundifolia, filiformis, intermedia? |
RE: Winter care of my bog garden
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| Yeah, once the first frosts hit and the plants go dormant, you can clip back any dead foliage and just give them a covering of mulch to protect them just in case. Remember to keep them barely moist, but do cut back on watering in winter. |
RE: Winter care of my bog garden
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| The sundews are filiformis, just not sure of which variety. They are very cool plants though!! I really don't want to lose them. I'll follow ya'll advise and cut them back after they go dormate and then mulch. This my first year with this bog and I am just thrilled with how well everything grew. Little teeny pitchers I bought or traded for in the early summer are just huge now!! The sundews and VFTs even bloomed for me. The sundews propagated themselves too, which I thought was especially nice of them. lol! If I got this much growth out of young, newly planted plants, I can't wait to see what happens next summer. |
RE: Winter care of my bog garden
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| You may also want to take leaf cuttings of the filiformis and start them indoors, just as a backup. Here's what I mean: 
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leaf cuttings to mature plants
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| Here's a timeline of a D. filformis that was sent to me as a leaf cutting: 
You may also want to get baby plants of each type and bring inside for the winter. |
RE: Winter care of my bog garden
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| petiolaris...Would you mind sharing your technique? Are those leaf cuttings submerged in water or some other solution? Interesting!! I am not too worried about most of them....they are varieties that are hardy in the south...but I may dig up a couple of the babies just to insure they survive the winter. |
RE: Winter care of my bog garden
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| I've done two different approaches. The one with the centrifuge tubes is obvious - sealed vial of water + leaf + indirect light + ignore for a few weeks = several sprouts per leaf. The time sequence pics was just a leaf that was sent to me from a hobbyist in Colorado. I placed it in a disposable pipette container, that has an inner and outer compartment, as well as a hinged cover. I just placed the inner inside the outer and filled with moist soil media and placed the leaf, dew side up, on top. Then I closed the lid and placed at a window sill.... and waited a few weeks. I got two sprouts but only one ended up becoming a mature plant. The following spring the plant became two and in the summer it flowered. Anything that hold media and be covered will work - saran wrap... soft drink cup with lid... 
Having backups and alternate approaches can be one of those "ounce of prevention" things! |
RE: Winter care of my bog garden
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| Great! thanks for the tips. I think it's time for me to get busy getting some plants going for the winter. |
RE: Winter care of my bog garden
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| More dormancy ideas. BUMP! |
RE: Winter care of my bog garden
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| I am glad you bumped this up! I have had this bog garden for two winters now and it is NO stress at all. I don't do a thing. I don't mulch them, cover them, nothing. In the spring, I prune them back nearly to the ground to remove all the dead stuff and you would not believe how huge these plants have grown! The D. filformis had spread throughout the whole bed. There are fly trap and pitcher seedlings all over the place. Each plant had divided and are all now huge clumps. This bog garden has really thrived and is one of my favorite beds in my whole garden. |
RE: Winter care of my bog garden
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| ccoombs1 glad to hear your plants are doing so good. I would like to get a bog started myself but I'm sure I would have to mulch. I may be interested in a filiformis or two come spring if you have any you would part with. Check out my trade list and email me if interested. John |
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