About Long Island Gardener Expertise Growing Tulips? Dahlias? Daffodils? Gladiolus? It doesn't get easier than bulbs and tubers. Once in a while, something goes wrong: The dreaded Narcissus Bulb Fly, which resembles a honeybee. Mosaic virus, which can ignite a field of tulips in a single season. Nematodes, lurking underground. Here on the North Shore of Long Island, the garden is full of surprises. If you live in the Northeast/Atlantic Coast, I can help you pick the right bulb for every season, indoors and out, and help you fertilize, bloom and harvest for home or work. How: I have degrees in related fields, but my best understanding is all learned from trial and error. For most of my 53 years I have been gardening somewhere. No matter what the problem, I've learned the best answers are always Organic -- Earth friendly, less expensive, healthier for people and pets, easier and cleaner than toxic liquids and powders that big chemical companies sell so smoothly.
Experience Besides degrees in related fields, and a few favorite horticultural societies, I work as a docent at our local botanical gardens -- but it's the years of work in the garden that's the real test.
We had a freeze the other nite that lated for 2 days. I had A. Foeniculum (Lavender Hyssop)in planters that froze. They are a very hardy plant that came back the year before after wintering in the ground. I was unaware that these are considered perrenials and could be taken out of the ground, then the root stored inside. But now that it is back above 32 and are not frozen, I was wondering if I could try to salvage them. What is the proper way to store these plants since they are considered somewhat of a tuber? Lavender Hyssop in the ground came back from the very base of the plants stem the last year
Answer Agastache foeniculum, aka 'Giant Hyssop' or 'Anise Hyssop' (unless you're on the Seedland.com website, which refers to it primarily as 'Lavender Hyssop'), is a tough plant hardy to Zone 3. This plant is SO easy it grows wild, which is why you can buy it in bulk on Seedland.com.
You did not tell me where your planters are or how cold it actually got when everything froze, but I suspect this was an early season surprise -- first frosts tend to be unexpected -- and the foliage/stems were felled but not the underground plant parts. Since they were outdoors, they are most certainly hardened enough at this point from being acclimated to the onset of Winter. That's important. And it is the key here to whether they will survive having endured this initial test of toughness.
I would prefer that you leave the roots undisturbed and in their planters, where they have been growing happily for months.
Here's why.
The natural habitat of Agastache is not well understood yet by ecologists or botanists, as is the case w/ many native plants. Wildflowers tend to be unpredictable and fickle. Many botanists believe it is the tenuous state of their root systems and relationships with beneficial Fungi, arbuscular Mycorrhizae, which are destroyed in an instant when you disturb the roots they surround. These species depend more than hybrid plants on those invisible bonds that get them growing in the most hostile landscapes, without water, without reason.
Mycorrhizal relationships are still a new area of intense study. Ecologists consider beneficial Fungi a key to saving many nearly extinct species.
It is likely that even in your little pots, those Fungi developed around the roots of the Agastaches growing in them. Unlike heavily crossed hybrids, they depend on the ten-fold fortification those Fungi provide. You should over-winter them with careful consideration to protecting the roots and their Fungal friends.
Move the pots someplace just above freezing -- an unheated garage perhaps, or protected garden location where the Soil will not cool below 32 degrees F. The biggest problem with freezing is the freeze/thaw cycle around the roots, which damages the roots.
Also, make sure those roots dry out every now and then. You don't want root rot to pick up any steam around these plants.
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