February 21, 2020

A New Cold Frame for Storing Hundreds of Bare Root Hostas

A late winter gardening project that involved potting up hundreds of bare-root plants and building a protective cold frame in which to store them is now complete.

Last week, my gardeners and outdoor grounds crew took on the task of caring for all sorts of bare-root hostas. Bare-root plants are so named because the plants are dug from the ground while dormant, and then stored without any soil surrounding their roots. I ordered hundreds of hostas to plant around the farm - all from Pioneer Gardens, a wholesale company located on the outskirts of Deerfield, Massachusetts. Many of them were stored in a cold frame located behind my main greenhouse. To accommodate the remainder, the crew built a second cold frame using windows I already had - in fact, the window frames were already constructed with angled side panels, which were perfect for this project.

Enjoy these photos.