Question

Lily in water feature  

Lily in Water feature   I have a Judith hindel that I have had for about 8 years. I live in Western Washington south of Olympia Washington in Region 4 of Western Gardening.   I have successfully split it and until this year would winter them over in my house.  Earlier this year we installed a water feature with water fall.  No chemicals.  They have been living each in a pot, submersed and are loving it.  Have doubled in size since spring.  My question, can I winter them over as long as the water is constantly moving or should I bring them in during serve cold.  Our climate is usually in the 30's - 50's through the winter but we do, a couple times a winter, get down in the teens and 20's at night.

Answer
Hi Cheryl,

Without a doubt you can leave them out, and they will probably be better off that way since you'll have much less risk of fungal problems than overwintering inside.  In the setting you have these I wouldn't worry about doing any kind of protection until you see a threat of temperatures in the teens.  You could bring it into a garage, shed, or similar shelter at that time, then when we are back to rain, right back outside.  

In our nursery the only protection any of our older Sarracenia get is a black plastic covering during clear, cold weather where temperatures are in the teens overnight.  Most losses we've had have been when plants were up exposed such as on a table.  Your water feature is going to maintain quite a bit of residual heat.  Also, Judith Hindle has both Sarracenia flava and Sarracenia purpurea in it's parentage, both of which are very winter hardy.  I don't recall every loosing one to freezing.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.growcarnivorousplants.com