Ceramic Pot Wintering

You can sometimes find styrofoam pots.

Ceramic pot wintering.

There are steps that can be taken to help prevent your pots from cracking when old man winter whips through your garden. In his usda zone 4 garden ray mims director of horticulture at the denver botanic gardens likes the look of his large terra cotta pots and wants to use them all. Much like terracotta and clay pots it is not a good idea to store ceramic pots outside in the winter. Definitely move ceramic containers indoors for the winter.

Leaving terracotta pots out in the winter can cause damage. The goal is to eliminate the possibility of water being absorbed frozen and thus causing the pot to crack. If the day temperatures are above freezing during the winter and there is no snow cover on your pots and it hasn t rained in a week or more crack out the garden hose and provide your plants with a through watering. Plus ceramic has no capacity for expansion and will likely crack as the soil it contains freezes and expands.

Storing ceramic containers for winter. Your climate determines which types of pots will do best in winter. Winter doesn t mean you can t have plants in your yard but if you have potted ones on your deck or patio you should be careful which materials those containers are made out of. Ceramic being even more brittle than terracotta the slightest crack can quickly split the pot in two.