I had a question awhile back about wintering over native plants (asters and coneflowers) which didn’t get planted. The person calling was wondering if they could simply store them in their unheated garage until spring and then transplant them.

I’m no expert, so when it comes to answering this question, I can only draw upon past experience. Here’s how I answered that question.

I suggested they leave the plants outside in whatever containers they were in (plastic pots, plastic grocery bags, etc) and cover them with leaves.

History

The same thing has happened to me in the past. Because of the summer heat and lack of rain, I have occasionally held off planting a partial tray of plants from the plant sale or plants dug from a rescue. Then mid-September arrives too soon and it’s too late to get them into the ground to establish a good root hold before winter sets in. So, in the fall I cover them with a huge pile of leaves and store them outside, in a spot where they can be sheltered from the high noon heat.

I discovered this method works because, sometimes in the past, I have had no choice but to over-winter late season rescued plants in their grocery bag greenhouses. Out of necessity, I have simply covered them with fall’s discarded leaves, and they’ve come back to life in the spring without fail. This gave me a chance to transplant them into much softer, more adaptable ground in the spring, and eliminated the need to worry about frost heave from having planted them the previous fall.

Storing them in an unheated garage might also work, but they would need to be watered now and then. Most native plants in the Midwest need a winter rest, but they also need some moisture to get them through to spring wake-up. Putting them outside means Mother Nature will water these plants and give them a sufficiently cool rest.

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One of my readers, Cindy Donahey, writes to me about many interesting things in response to my posts. One of her comments about my recent Wild Grape Vine & Pollinators post caused me to do some research. She wrote “you can get water from cut grapevines that is clean to drink,” and I found she’s correct. You can use grape vines as a source of water.

Researching a number of survival websites, I found “grape vines (the genus Vitis) can yield water throughout the spring season in North America. Use a good woody-plants field guide to make certain you’re dealing with a grape species. Small vines about a half-inch in diameter, cut a few feet above ground, will drip water for some time. Larger vines in which a notch has been cut will gush water. Again, be sure to use a trusty identification guide. There are some toxic vines out there that produce sap that would not be good to drink.” (Outdoor Life)

Hopefully, I’ll never be in a position where I have to seek out grape vines for a water source, but this was an interesting fact. I continue to be awed by nature.

For more information about actually obtaining water from vines, see Here is how to Find a survival  Water Source in Vines.

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