Yes I also remember that post and will be attempting that method on my main garden. I remember him telling me to wait at least till thanksgiving but with the weather system going now Im wondering if it will ever be cold enough, december maybe. For instance in my zone 6 climate the next three days highs are predicted 58,60 and 65 and it has been up to 70 recently. Im thinking we will have to wait till temps are steadily in the 40s or lower.

We've got temps below freezing for the next few nights. I have some new salvias that are still in pots... I just went out in the dark and brought what I could find into the garage. Ugh. I hope I don't lose too many plants. I've got tons of barely established cuttings out there.

I'm running damage control this morning (and I'm supposed to go to a funeral soon)... :-(

I think I will lose a lot of new (for me), rare in the trade salvias (and other plants) that were still in pots. We're not used to frost this early in CA... "fall is planting time!", so I took advantage of sales. I hope that I have saved some of them by putting them in the garage this morning, but they look frozen. My bird bath water is frozen solid. Thank goodness I got the new Stybing salvia purchases in the garage last night. It's not easy rummaging around in dark!

SIGH. Maybe I really *do* need that greenhouse I wanted...

You are in zone 9 with below freezing temps? Seems odd to me, but we are really supposed to get cold tonight with temps around 10 degrees, highs tomorrow mid-30s.

I hope your new sages survive this cold wave!

Susan

I'm glad I managed to pull some things into the garage... Salvia pulchella X karwinskii (very rare in the trade, it seems) just started to bloom while in there. lovely! :)

It's still very cold here, but has started to rain, and will for several days, so I hope that there will be no more freeze! If it snows, I think I will faint. Zone 9!!

My begonias were the hardest hit, but my fuchsias are fine - go figure. I lost my guava tree while living in Germany last year, so there must have been frost then, too. I hope that this is it, for this year. We're spoiled, I know. This "over-wintering" business that those in the colder zones go through would drive me mad. I think I'd have to find another hobby. ;)

I don't think it's over. I'll be surprised if anyone besides the people who stand to gain from it is pushing Global Warming after this winter. Last winter was the worst in over 100 years for a few states and this winter will be even worse yet as far as lows. Hopefully we won't get the freezing rain that we got last year. Many people were without power for 2 weeks or more because the rain froze in the trees and caused so much damage from the extra weight of the ice on the branches. All of the snapping of the branches and thunder like crashing to the ground was very unnerving. It reminded me of the movie The Langoliers toward the end when the trees were falling. I would get everything I wanted to keep inside.

I don't know Voodoobrew, having gardened in zone 9 south of you and in zone 7 New Jersey I don't know how I would choose between them. They both have advantages. Here in my area we are still learning what may or may not be hardy and since our winters vary quite a bit experience is not a perfect teacher. In the past decade or two we've been seeing more and more warmish winters. Most years spring seems to come about the same time but autumns have been stretching out - this year into December. Temperatures below 10F are now a rare thing. It is sometimes hard to believe that when I was a kid we usually had a month or more of ice skating - now good ice rarely lasts a week if it ever forms at all.

Wintering plants indoors is work and most of us would like more room and more perfect indoor conditions. But the seasonal work can be interesting and the long winter layoff allows for planning and a rest from the harder chores of gardening. It also allows summer memories to fade, renewing appreciation for the results of the work when the next summer season comes around. Every spring at planting time I think I must have it wrong, these small plants can't grow that big, and every year they prove me wrong. Then again maybe it is all a romantic dream brought on by the cold winds that shake the house.

I pulled the tarp and leaf bags off the plants 2 weeks ago and the experiment was a complete success. Mostly it was over a patch of Salvia Scarlet Spires and involucrata both of which are somewhat marginal here in zone 6b/7a. All the protected plants have sprouted to life while those that weren't have not.