Go ahead and pot them up after the first frost. Set them in an unheated garage and give them some water every few weeks or so, and they will be fine come springtime. There is never anyneed to throw away healthy coneflowers or rudbeckias.

Go ahead and pot them up after the first frost. Set them in an unheated garage and give them some water every few weeks or so, and they will be fine come springtime. There is never anyneed to throw away healthy coneflowers or rudbeckias.

are you in z5 where the ground freezes .... or barely freezes ...

and why cant you just leave them in the ground ... looking for a little extra fall work???

or make a little nursery bed where the tomatoes are????

messing around with pots... would be a learning experience .... and a lot of extra work.. IMHO

ken

Thanks for the information from both of you. I so appreciate your help. Yes the pots do sound like too much trouble. Actually I just wanted to clean up beds since they are in front of house. I will let them be. Can I cut the plants to the ground now and then be done with them?

I grew many rudbeckia cultivars from seed via winter sowing and they've reliably come back season after season, even those I left in gallon pots on my breezeway. I can't vouch for nursery-grown plants but I've not had any issues with winter sown plants.

Echinacea/coneflower cultivars haven't been as reliable either in pots or in the ground where I am. The only plants that have returned after several seasons are the species purpurea and the cultivar 'White Swan.' Even winter sown seed-grown cultivars haven't returned after their first season.

I guess the answer to your question is that some will survive the winter in pots while others may not. Normally I'm grateful for those that survive and don't let myself be concerned over those that don't.

I have an east/west facing breezeway and have noticed that gallon pots of perennials placed at ground level up against the house foundation have reliably survived even a cold, snowy winter season.