As winter draws nearer.

Post by **Dave Brown** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 8:01 am

As we move into the last half of October I'm starting to think about what needs to be moved under shelter, what I will dig up, and what will get left where it is. With my laptop down (disk failure) I'm having to travel into London when the spare laptop is ready. so I'll start off with the Ensetes as time is short, but will add other plants as time allows. Also will upload the pics when I can.

The Ensetes will get a haircut as they are all very fully leaved at the moment and can't he housed at the size they are.

The Maurelii is nearly 6 feet tall and 8 feet in diameter with 13 leaves. This will be cut back to just 3 making it look more 'Montbeliardii'-ish.

The Green ventricosum is still very dwarf for the end of its second season at about 3 feet tall and 6 feet across. It has a complete dome of 18 leaves. It seems a shame to cut most of these off, but has to be done. This also will be cut to just 3 upright leaves.

The glaucum don't have as many leaves and are much slower growing here. They are 2 and 3 feet tall respectively. They also will have acouple of leaves removed back to 3 leaves.

Finally the 'Montbeliardii' which is upright enough not to need any leaves removed and currently has 5.

The huge, 6 foot diameter, drooping leaf on my Sabal will be removed to free up space in the covered courtyard for the Enstetes to come under cover.

The big question is when I need to do this

There is a forecast for groundfrost over large parts of the country later in the week. I'm watching the forecasts like a hawk at the moment.

Plan A - is to leave them out as they are until forst is forecast
Plan B - is the haircut now ready for bringing under cover.

What are your plans and timings

SteveW · Post by **SteveW** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:00 am

I've already lifted my bananas a couple of weeks ago to give them a little bit of time to adjust before the cold weather comes.
My second greenhouse went up at the weekend and is now housing the ensetes(well most of them) along with most of the other musas,apart from the HH,balbisiana and ice cream as thy're going to have to be chopped back.
I lifted my tender agaves aswell at the weekend,which againI seem to have too many of

The mediopicta had started to pup aswell,so they're now potted up.
Black magic and a couple of the larger eddoes and arbi are also now in the glasshouse,along with the alocasias.Some of which have now made it indoors

Hilo beauty is in the bathroom,sarian on the hallway windowsill.I haven't found a home yet for the borneo giant,but it'll probably go in the bathroom too.
My maccrorizzos is in the diningroom as will one of the portoras.
I dug the Sabal up and potted it on Sunday(its too tall to fit in the greenhouse

)and moved an arundo donax into its position,which opened up the area near my albizzia.Avast improvement

There're aloes to decide what to do with the list seems endless
Steve

SteveW · Post by **SteveW** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 7:05 pm

Having read the weather topic on uko,I've decide to move the rest of the bananas undercover,that meant chopping the Helens

The icecream and balbisiana just squeezed in with some trimming of their leaves.If they start growing much I'm stuffed

All thats left outside are a few palms that can easily be moved undercover if need be,and some more succulents that I've got to decide whether to leave or lift.The main ones I'm concerened about are a couple of aloes,ones a striata(Ithink)and the other is arborescense(?)which is now so big I'm not entirely sure I'll beable to easily lift.Last year was bad enough,its so bloody heavy.This year it looks twice the size.
Anybody know whether these'll be hardy enough outside?I'm sure the striata is but I'm not too sure about the other one.
I've got a nolina and a dasyliron outside aswell,these again I think are hardy.If you know diffrent let me know.
I think that probably covers it.
I think I may have some room in my greenhouses to actually walk into them

Steve

turtile · Post by **turtile** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:14 am

I don't know how your weather is but I would cover them when anything is close to freezing is predicted. Where I live there can be 3-8F difference in temperature.

We currently don't have any freezing temperatures in the 15 day forecast. I hope our warm weather continues through winter.
http://www.accuweather.com/forecast-15d ... 8&metric=1

Post by **Dave Brown** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 7:47 am

A cold night forecast tonight with lows of 5C in London, that would equate to 2 or 3C in the countryside. Whether we will get ground frost or not will be dependent on wind speed mixing up thre air. Best bet is to have fleece ready.

I think my plants are just going to tuff this one out.

Turtile, I suspect your temps can be quite volatile at this time of year dependant on where the air mass is coming from. Your current temps are about the same as the highest we got in the summer.

Looks like a chill on the night of 29th though.

Post by **Dave Brown** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:32 pm

I have been out and taken some pics in case my pride and joy s are fried tonight with the cold forecast. It probably won't kill them but leaves may become damaged.

Update 13:34 - The cold is colder than first thought and winds will fall light, classic groundfrost weather. Temps forecast for the cities are Manchester 1C Southampton 2C and London 5C. it is normally 2C colder out of towns.

Forecast for SE England tonight London 5C, Suburbs 3C, Towns 2C countryside 0C !!!!

Ensete Maurelii - still has 13 leaves but will be pulled under cover of the pergola this evening.

Ensete ventriosum - this is a squat version of the plant with a full dome of 18 leaves. Will be pulled uner the pergola.

Ensete glaucum with the distictive bulbus based and piched in top to the white pseudostem. Both of these will go under the covered courtyard tonight.

Ensete Montbeliardii - will be brought into the consevatory tonight as it is my only one and not in plentiful supply.

Alocasia are all in the consevatory or indoors. Colocasia Black Magic multistem is in conservatory still in water feature. Large Mammoth, Eddoes, Burgundy Stem and Fontanesii will stay in beds. Smaller ones in tubs will be brought under cover. Ones in pond will stay where they are apart from illustris.

Colocasia bed

Mammoth Dicksonia antarctica bed

Burgundy Stem and illustris in pond

Fontanesii in the stream

Palms.
All staying outside for now, but Phoenix roebelenii will need to come in for winter.

Post by **Dave Brown** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:21 pm

I have drained the Ensetes that are to stay outside during the chilled nights.

ventricosum

Maurelii

Undercover

Colocasia illustris from the pond.

Post by **Dave Brown** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 7:29 am

The weather forecast spurred me into action yesterday, but in the end it was not required. The lowest temp was 5.1C with an average 10mph NW breeze overnight keeping the air stirred up. No frost on the lawn, or the cars. I'm happy though as this was set to be one of the earliest groundfrosts for a few years.

The breeze has died down since 7 o'clock so maybe I was just lucky.