Talkback: How to protect tender plants over winter

I like Adam's tip for differentiating between the regions of the country - albeit, if only for protecting plants. I usually have to add or deduct at least a month at each end of the growing seasons in other publications which concentrate mainly on below The Wash - just like the old weather forecasts!! Further North never seemed to exist! I do follow the recommendation for protecting fragile plants - only 2 months earlier. Thanks again, Adam.

I have a himalayan honeysuckle and I wonder if it will O/K in the winter or should I cut it back a bit as it is abouut 5ft to 6ft tall thanks Pippen

I live in the southeast and we cut our Leycesteria formosa back in early Spring

Pam LL x

I tried growing a couple of tender plants one year. They did well during the summer but I wasn't sure about fleecing over winter, whether once covered, you left them all winter till the following spring or took the fleece off on warmer days. I also wasn't sure whether to dig them up and put in the GH.

In the end I tied both up, covered them in fleece and dug one up, to spend the winter in the GH. One was uncovered early spring but both died, they rotted in the centre, it was a particularly cold winter in 2010 but I haven't tried growing anything tender since then.