but as quick as time is flying by
If this has been posted somewhere, I apologize. I am still trying to make it through the entire forum
This morning I was thinking about how wonderful my oak leaf hydrangea was doing and then my mind shot to this winter. We have mild compared to some of you but it has still taken plants from us. This is a hardy plant but I don't want to lose it

Here's what I came across while looking into protecting it and it is easier than the Christmas light protection I do and it should work for many and I already have the wire cylinders from use as tomato cages

http://www.ehow.com/how_210578...

In your zone there is practically no chance of cold damage to your oak leafs. Mine were magnificent this spring but now all the flower heads are browning and I will probably go ahead and trim them all off this weekend.

I agree, but someone more north than me might want to try it for oak leaf or another plant,

Jolana said:but as quick as time is flying by
If this has been posted somewhere, I apologize. I am still trying to make it through the entire forum
This morning I was thinking about how wonderful my oak leaf hydrangea was doing and then my mind shot to this winter. We have mild compared to some of you but it has still taken plants from us. This is a hardy plant but I don't want to lose it

Here's what I came across while looking into protecting it and it is easier than the Christmas light protection I do and it should work for many and I already have the wire cylinders from use as tomato cages

http://www.ehow.com/how_210578...

I don`t know Hydrangea types, but I had a mophead I got as a gift I planted last spring and it is getting ready to bloom, it
survived a cold Nebraska winter many nights and days in the teens, all I ever did was mulch it in the fall deeply.

Here's the oak leaf hydrangea.

Oh mopheads are so pretty, I just have a couple in pots, They are tougher than I knew tho

Oh my, thos oak leaf s are gorgeous. Are they in the ground? What do you do for winter?

Hi Jolana. I have a few in-ground plants that I have to protect in the winter. Other than growing them in pots then burying them in the ground for easy removal for winter protection (my bromeliads are like this), I use a similar idea from your article. Read about it here:

http://garden.org/ideas/view/S...

Jolana, my oak leafs are in the ground. They get about 3 hours of morning sun and then a couple of hours of late afternoon sun. They are growing under large oaks/cedars and thus get dappled shade the rest of the day. I really do little to them in the winter months. I might throw a few inches of oak leaves over them after then have dropped all their leaves, but that's it. They overwinter very well and I have never lost one. They just keep increasing in size every year. We typically get down in the teens (sometimes 12F) 10-12 nights and in the 20's twice that amount, but it generally warms up above freezing the following day. Three years ago we went a week that it stayed below freezing, but the oak leafs were not harmed.

Thank you Cheryl, I saved that info,


Dr D thanks for all of that info
I had one in the ground years ago, came home from work one day, it was on its side, the gophers had eaten all the roots. That was in my 4 ft square of shade
In one year we are moving to our *final* house and it has wonderful shade all around it
I am looking forward to that soo much
Thanks again

Thank goodness we don't have gophers here, or anything like that. Are you staying in Mountain City when you move to the "final" house?

No we are moving to Seguin, Tx and I can't wait
There are also snails here
We have gotten Home Depot buckets full ( I learned not to say homer buckets on here lol)
I guess some places don't call them that, lol

That's a new term for me.

drdawg said:That's a new term for me.

I learned it from Jolana not too long ago, in another post

Ugh, whatever you call the buckets, that would be a LOT of snails!!

yes you did and the responses made me feel at home