I recently purchased an Ensete ventricosum, which I will plant in a large
container. I live in Bellevue. Should I consider this
plant an annual only? Or is there a way I can overwinter the plant, so that I can enjoy it next year? I don’t have a green house. Would it work to bring it into the garage? If I bring a potted plant into the garage, doesn’t it need water and light? Or could I put hay over the container and leave it outside?
I could not find any information that suggested overwintering this particular
plant outside would be successful. In Bellevue, some other species can be
overwintered outdoors, like Musa basjoo, but E. ventricosum is more tender.
Fortunately, I did find several resources about overwintering your plant
indoors, so you may be able to enjoy your plant over several seasons. The
Missouri Botanical Garden information suggests several methods for overwintering
E. ventricosum. Here is an excerpt:
- Bring container plant indoors in fall before first frost and place container
in a large sunny room for overwintering as a houseplant, with reduced water and
fertilization; - If container plant is too large to bring inside as a houseplant, cut foliage
back to 6-8″ in fall after first frost, and store container in a cool, dark,
frost-free corner of the basement until spring, with periodic addition of a
touch of moisture as needed in winter to prevent the soils from totally drying
out; - If container plant is too heavy or too large to bring inside, remove
plant from container in fall before first frost, wrap roots in plastic and store
in a cool, dark, frost-free corner of the basement until spring (foliage may be
trimmed back or left on the plant and allowed to brown up in the normal course)
If you don’t want your E. ventricosum as a houseplant, overwintering in the
garage seems possible. Given that the Missouri Botanical Garden recommends a
basement and the plant will be basically dormant, meaning it will not want much
water or light, your garage will probably be fine as long as it is warm enough.
The Royal Horticultural Society suggests growing it in a sheltered spot outside, or overwintering it in a well-ventilated temperate greenhouse. Another RHS page no longer available online makes these recommendations about temperature:
To overwinter Ensete, our glasshouse is kept at 16 C (61F) by day and 12C
(53 F) at night – at lower temperatures, lifted plants are prone to rotting. The
lower the overwintering temperature, the earlier Ensete should be lifted and
established in their winter containers, and the drier they should be kept
subsequently.
The site of Cool Tropical Plants includes an illustrated tutorial of lifting Ensete for the winter, however, simply notes that the minimum temperature should be 3 C (about 37 F).