Cold hardiness of potted plants left outdoors in winter

John Grimshaw john@oltarakwa.co.uk
Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:26:21 PDT
Peter Taggart is right that physiological drought through freezing is an
important killer of some potted plants, and even those in the ground if it
remains deeply frozen, but in all the cases of frozen amaryllid roots (and
bulbs) I've seen it has been simple physical damage that has killed them. 

The duration of the freeze is irrelevant: one night's freezing solid of a
pot will do the damage.

John Grimshaw

-----Original Message-----
From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]
On Behalf Of Peter Taggart
Sent: 08 October 2012 19:59
To: Pacific Bulb Society
Subject: Re: [pbs] Cold hardiness of potted plants left outdoors in winter

I think that there may be drought induced death in many plants if the roots
freeze in a pot, whereas in the ground though the bulk of a tuber or  bulb
etc, including most of it's roots, may be frozen solid, the few roots which
have their tips deep enough may keep the plant going. (While frozen there is
very little moisture of a liquid form available to the plant.) I
particularly feel that this may be the case with Cyclamen and rhizomatous
Iris. This could equally well aply to the rootstocks of woody plants.
Peter (UK)

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