How do I get potted climbers ready for winter? Advice please.

Hello to all

I was just wondering if someone could enlighten me please. I put up a trellis in my front garden a few weeks ago, the idea was to add some potted climbers to it (the front garden is all concrete). A friend of mine was just moving house so he donated some plants to me. They are:

2 x Honey suckle (Graham Thomas)
2 x Crimson glory vine (Vitis Coignetiae)
1 x Passion flower
1 x Clementis (not sure which)

Anyhow the Crimson glory vines are doing well and the rest are starting to establish. However I noticed the other day that the wind was cutting through and giving them all a bit of a battering (not usually the case but it was a windy day) this got me thinking towards winter as Iâ??m not sure what care I should give them as the colder days set in.

Do I need to shelter them in some way or will they just go dormant?
Should I do anything with the post so to speak?
Should the soil be protected or will they be ok if it freezes through (last year was bitterly cold)?
Basically how do I go about getting them through the winter months?

Thanks in advance

Alex

 

I think its only the passion flower that you need to worry about and then only if its a hard winter.

Best if you can wrap the pot in something like bubble wrap if it gets very frosty.

 

Hi Pete

Thanks for that. I have read that you should cover the plants is a fleece. That sounds a bit too much to me and I think I will get something like that pinched knowing my neighbourhood.

Alex

 

Hi Chalky.
I think your plants will be OK.
I'm doing like you and trying to cover my fences with the same plants as you plus a few roses.
The plants you mention are hardy. The Passion flower might be a bit more tender than the rest.
I would plant the Passion Flower in the most sheltered spot you have - south and west facing, against a wall or fence.
The others are pretty hardy. Unless they are billed as evergreen they will loose their leaves in winter.
I give my clematis and honeysuckle (and fuchsias) a good mulch of compost round their roots (about 4 ") when I'm doing my autumn tidy up. That way if they get stricken by a bitter winter and the top growth gets killed they come back from below ground.
Last year was cruel and 1 clematis looked totally dead. Waited patiently and it came back from below ground.
2 Fuchsias which looked like gonners appeared from below ground.
I did lose a Hebe, a Hypericum, some monbretia and a few other bits and bobs.
Maybe I should have mulched them all.

 

Alice thanks for the detailed response. Over the winter months did you do anything re care or did you just let them get on with it? The vines are doing really well and I would be happy to just have them over the trellis. Re the Passion flower it is currently on the trellis and is only just starting to establish itself. I assume I shouldnâ??t move it until it is doing better (3 feet to the left and it will be on a wall)? Maybe I should give it time to get its strength and then move it.

Thanks

Alex

 

If you've tidied them up before winter, pruning out and tying in any errant growth, plus the mulching that Alice mentions, you shouldn't have to do anything more to them until Spring.

Make sure the trellis they're growing up has been well secured against winter gales however.

 

No I didn't do anything to them in the winter Chalky. Just the mulch for the roots. They go dormant in the winter.
I don't think you need to move your Passion Flower. If you want it on the wall just let it grow a bit and train it round there.

 

Thanks for the advice. I did wonder.

Alex