This was a surprise … Last spring I managed to get hold of three Belladonna plants. Two went directly into the ground, the third into a container. The two in the ground certainly outperformed the container one, but I didn’t have a lot of hope that those two would make it through the cold season. Since it was abnormally cold, I was glad I had the one in the container in the house.

It seemed to fairly well thrive indoors. At first it died off, but almost immediately a new shoot sprang up from the root, which managed to stay alive nearly all winter. Leggy, but alive. When the ground thawed and winter looks fairly well spent, I dug up the two roots, took the third from its pot, and planted all three in the ground, in my new witch’s garden. The one from the container had smaller roots, which was to be expected, but all three looked about the same as far as health.

Of the three, the one which had been in the container is the only one not to come back. Maybe it’s tired from putting out shoots all winter, and maybe it will come back.

But if not, it’s still nice to know that cold winters don’t kill off this perennial poison.