Robyn,

You'll be surprised to know this:

last week, as we are in mid summer, i emptied out a bucket of dry to damp gravel that was being kept in a bucket - the gravel used to have some disregarded bulbs from my arrowheads that i never found all of them.


in the gravel were growing sprouts - dry and alive - from the arrowhead bulbs

i kept this bucket outside all winter.

so, the bulbs that were in the ice frozen all died and the bulbs that were dry made it, being exposed to very cold conditions.

this is strange - because them must have been thawed and dry for many many months and yet sprouting - never dried out.


im hoping that i can over winter them in moist soil in a drained bog in winter - ill have to see.


me

There are some pond plants that can overwinter frozen as long as they are not in water. It seems the water freezing can be more harmful for some plants. Cardinal plant comes to mind. The arrowhead must also fall into this category. If they are kept dry enough, bulbs really can't freeze solid because they don't have that much moisture inside of them.

If I put my arrowheads down lower in my pond do you think my arrowheads will make it throught the winter or is there something else I should do? I live in Ohio and my pond has one, two and a three and a half foot water depths. When do you cut your plants off if you do? I have lilies, arrowheads, Iris, and water bamboo.

I've overwintered arrowhead in my pond successfully but sometimes it hasn't made it. It does help to lower it to deeper water once you cut it back. I cut my plants as they yellow, really all year but the cutting kicks into high gear in October mostly. I normally cut down whatever is left in early November.