Duvets for Plants

Salvia 'Amistad' in post-autumn glory

This year's hot summer has been confusing for the plants. Now, in mid November I have dozens of roses flowering away,  the bright red pelargoniums are in their August glory and one of my blueberries thinks it is next year and is already in flower. The salvia 'Amistad' is still clothed in royal purple and today I picked a couple of perfect raspberries. I suspect protecting the not-so-hardy from possibly cold weather would be a good idea anyway so that's what I've been trying to do. After all, the warmer it is now, the more of a shock cold temperatures will be. 

The tree fern's most vulnerable spot is the crown where the leaves emerge. I gently put in a couple of handfuls of dryish leaves or a crumpled up piece of bubble wrap  to keep it from getting soggy. 

Tree fern crown which I have filled with raked leaves

Normally I put a length of bubble wrap or horticultural fleece on the ground round the base but this year I had some lovely wool matting which came as insulation round a food parcel. The foxes smelled it from afar and had a great time tearing it into shreds and leaving it all round the garden. It took ages to pick it all up and put it on the compost heap. 

Wonderful sheep's wool matting worried by foxes

A Cornish friend once gave me an echium which seeded itself and I've had one or two every year since then. They're biennial or sometimes triennial and evergreen and too big to cover over so I just protect the base of the stem and the ground round it with bubble wrap. As usual the foxes were intrigued and tore all the bubble wrap away but luckily bricks are too heavy for them to move so I've weighted it down  again. 

Protective bubble wrap round base of echium, held down by bricks

Some sort of mulch is good for insulation for most plants. I use leaf mould from raked-up leaves which have been mouldering away in a tube of stiff netting since last year. I also use dried grass clippings from the lawn.

Grass clippings spread round the salvia

For the dahlias and (eventually) the pelargoniums, which are all in pots, I wrap the whole thing, pot and all,  in fleece making sure it goes underneath as well. 

I've had several plastic cloches for years now, large and small. They act like little cold frames -  good for covering pots and autumn cuttings. 

                                                                                                  

                                                  

Plastic cloches can protect seedlings, cuttings or vulnerable plants from anything from mice to frosts

PS. I've recently planted quite a number of miniature daffodils, dwarf tulips and wood anemones and covered the new plantings with upturned hanging baskets - not against the cold but against the squirrels. So far so good.