How to protect your plants this winter Will did have some losses. An aged variegated phormium died and he had been lazy about wrapping his hardy bananas and got caught out. They did live up to their name, though, and "root hardy bananas" sprang back from the base, but they were no longer towering specimens. He is wrapping them again this year to maintain their majestic heights (5m/16ft plus). Firstly he breaks their leaves so they hang like skirts around the plant (for extra insulation). Then he puts in canes about 1ft from the stem in a circle around the base. The "enclosure" is filled with straw. On the top he puts a small "hat" of polythene which is stuck with duct tape to the fleece that covers the straw. The fleece really just contains the straw (it retains about two degrees of heat). In April the top starts to lift off as the leaves poke through. Will has stopped using bubble wrap as he found they started to sweat in spring. Although hessian looks better, he finds it gets very heavy in winter when it is wet. I take cuttings of all my bedding and tender plants such as salvias, pelargoniums, plectranthus, brugmansias and abutilons in autumn. Most are done now, but I have a few left to do. These take less space than the adults and being young and vigorous, seem to survive lower temperatures better than their parents. I keep as many adults as I can fit in, cutting things such as brugmansias fairly savagely so they will fit inside - they always recover. Taking cuttings of pelargoniums (GAP PHOTOS) I open the greenhouse door frequently when it is sunny as the temperatures can quickly soar. Cannas (except for the hardier C. x ehemanii) I will lift after early frosts, keeping as much soil on their roots as possible, and then I put in crates/bags in a frost-free greenhouse or shed, keeping them only just moist. I do the same with dahlias, but pot up the plants properly, I find this better than drying them off like most people do. Many leave them out all winter but mine get munched by slugs and are very late to come back to life. With plants such as agapanthus and zantedeschias that are borderline hardy, mulching with a good thick 15-20cm (6-8in) layer of bark /straw should guarantee survival whatever the weather. My lemons are 'Eureka," a hardier cultivar. A client has big specimens which she leaves bubble wrapped and unwatered (in Kent) from the end of November until April, and they have survived the past two winters like this in an unheated polytunnel. I asked BBC weatherman and part-time presenter of Radio 4"s Gardeners" Question Time, Peter Gibbs, what sort of winter to expect. He said the science is not yet good enough to give a confident prediction for the winter ahead, so it's best to be prepared for anything. But he emphasised that the forecasts out to five days ahead have improved enormously, so you should get adequate warning of an approaching cold snap. So this winter I intend to be a weather bore, scrutinising it carefully and being at the ready to move, cover or cosset so whatever comes our way, my plants will purr!