Of those choices, I think you'd be better off with the garage. Just keep them on the dryish side, spray if necessary for powdery mildew and bugs/mites, and give them a bit of light. The pool house if not heated will be way too cold, the roots will freeze and die.

They can take a little bit of cold in the pot, but I personally wouldn't be comfortable exposing them to temps much lower than about 28/29 degrees for very long. My potted ones stayed out last fall on a night it fell to 20 and they were OK, but I was sweating it for a few days, since they were only in 1 gallons and the soil did freeze.

They're actually pretty tough. The ones I overwintered last year looked really rough, they DID get mites and powdery mildew on the old foliage, in March all of the old leaves died off, and I put them under grow lights in the basement, they put on a big flush of new growth and looked great in 2 weeks. They are outside now and made a number of artichokes.

First of all, soon you'll find a 5-gal is not "very large" for an artie.

Second, you want a consistent temp with low light, so sunhouse is out and personally I'd do the garage.

Dan

Thanks for the info. I'll leave them out for now and when the weather turns I'll try the garage and keep my fingers crossed. I'd really hate to lose them since it took me so many attempts before I got some to produce.