Inevitable frost won’t be a surprise this year

It’s become a ridiculous tradition in my house. The night before the first frost, there’s a frantic scramble to bring in all the houseplants and anything tender that I want to save. A trail of fallen leaves leads to the initial landing spot of each plant, a dumping ground to be sorted out at a less hectic time.

But not this year. This year I am determined not to get caught off guard by the most predictable moment of the gardening year. Frost will come, and this year I’ll be ready.

That’s easier said than done, however, because the number of plants that need some help to make it through winter in my garden is getting much longer.

The list can be broken down into plants that will be grown as houseplants, plants that can go into dormant storage and marginally hardy plants that need special attention.

In the first category are plants that are grown specifically to enjoy indoors but happily summer outside. But it also includes plants that I grow in outdoor containers but don’t want to lose at the end of the season. These plants, like the spotted cast iron plant (Aspidistra) that I grew as a bold foliage accent in a pair of part sun containers or the bromeliads that I tucked into corners of various planters, are worth protecting so I can use them again in the future, but they’ll only survive if I bring them inside and keep them in a sunny spot or under grow lights. These get planted into small individual pots and join the houseplant brigade.

The next category of plants is those that need protection but can be stored cool and dormant. This is arguably the easiest of the bunch since they need almost no attention all winter. The red Abyssinian bananas (Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelli’) are the poster children for this treatment, but they will be joined by a heavily pruned Datura and a nonhardy fig in a pot. All of these will stay outside until after frost, allowing them to go dormant naturally, then be stored in a fully dark, cool section of the basement. This area stays about 45 to 55 degrees, which also makes it the perfect place to store dahlia tubers after they are dug and packed away.

Lastly, there is a growing number of plants that are just outside of our 5b/6a hardiness zone that require a cold dormancy but are unlikely to survive outside in the garden. This includes a chartreuse privet (Ligustrum ‘Sunshine’) that was an excellent filler in a large container and a pair of jasmine vines (Jasmine officinale ‘Fiona Sunrise’) from the window box. All of these will go into the unheated garage with other hardy containerized shrubs, where hopefully they will be protected enough to survive.

I’m happy to report that most of the plants that need special winter care have already been transplanted to individual pots and are ready to move to their winter homes. Although I might be more prepared than usual for frost, I know myself well enough to have plants staged at the patio door so that mad rush to get them inside is at least a shorter trip.