Expert: Christopher Littrell - 10/17/2011

Question
hi my name is shane and i have a lots of plants mostly flytraps.this is my first dormancy and i am afraid of losing expensive plants like wacky ,korean melody and other plants. i don't have private back yard or any private space except my dark garage.(some people wonder around on my front door and connected back yard) so im wondering what should i do if my water in water tray freeze and where should i put them? in garage or outside?( i live in seattle)

Answer
Hello Shane,

If you have an indoors window or room in your house that stays below 60 degrees, it would do. You could place the plants in that cold room in a window where they would get some light, yet have cold drafts from the window in winter. If that does not work, then try the garage. The one thing you could do is to place the plants in the garage where they can receive some outside light and stay cold, but also protected from freezing. Even if the garage has a small window, or if you could place the plants under a florescent light for about 8 hours a day, it would be fine. If you have no other choice, place them in the dark garage with no light. They will make do on what reserves their rhizomes have stored. It is better to have some light each day than none though even in winter.

If the temperature in the garage goes below freezing, you can mulch the plants in a large box or bucket with the pot sitting buried up to the rim in orchid bark, grass cuttings, leaves or whatever other mulch you have. Basically, just add some inches of insulation around the pots so they do not completely freeze solid. So long as the temperature remains around 35-55 degrees, the plants will stay dormant and remain safe from freeze drying.

Water the plants about half as much as you do in the growing season. Basically, just monitor them and add some water to keep their moss just moist all the time with very little water in the tray. When I overwinter mine, I place them in an ice chest with wet paper towels in the bottom, no tray, and close the top at night. I place frozen bottles of water around the pots in the chest to keep them around 40 degrees at night, and about 50 degrees by day. I open the chest by day and place it in a window or under florescent lights for several hours while I am at work. I change the water bottles every 12 hours. This is more work intensive, but is required if you keep North American plants in a place where they do not receive a good winter outside. The closed conditions keeps the water in and causes condensation as well as mimicking natural day night conditions so far as temperature and light variations are concerned.

Christopher