Help my Cherry Pie

I've tried several times to keep Heliotrope [Chery Pie] and I just can't get it to over-winter, it just goes all soggy and black then rots, any ideas for next year's attempt?

 

Hello wee tattie

Heliotropium is a shrubby tender perennial but is normally grown as a half-hardy annual and used as a bedding plant.

I have tried to overwinter it here without much success ... one year it survived but was a very sorry looking plant which did little in the flowering department the second year and then died.

Perhaps someone else has had more success than me ... I will be interested too as I love the heady scent.

 

Where are you keeping it? Its not hardy - so it will die if it is kept outside. The general advice is to keep it in a frostfree place - fairly dry.

I have overwintered them in a frost free summerhouse, but even so it is not very successful. I suspect that it is the winter damp that they hate, rather than just the cold. So I would be tempted to keep them inside the house.

I think I have just crossed with LoL - but agree with her comments.

 

PeterS ... yes, we did cross there .... but in the nicest possible way.

I think my failure to overwinter is as you say, it must be frost-free and dry. Although we get the odd touch or two of frost we are not dry in the winter here as it is our rain season ... so that answers that .... thank you! :gnthb:

 

Ah yes! that's where I've gone wrong. left the poor little thing outside prey to the elements, I shall try and get some more next year and take your advice, many thanks, Peter and LoL.
I too love the scent, but the plant is not easily available, though I have a nice little old fashioned cottage garden nursery a couple of miles away, so I may just be lucky.