Bring It In!

Overwintering tender plants doesn’t need to be difficult

Tropical plants are a major part of my homegarden . It requires effort to raise them every downslope and replant them in leaping , but it ’s deserving it to have a taste sensation of the tropics here in the Edwin Herbert Land of cornfields . Since I do not have a nursery , all of my tropicals must either stand life as houseplants or go dormant to make it through the winter .

Some dubiousness postulate to be involve as the rime of fall attack : What gets dig up ? Do I save all the cannas , or just the ones that are hard to find ? What can handle a frost ? The more frost tolerant a flora is , the afterward it gets dug up .

To help oneself you decide which plant to save , deliberate rarity , sentimental adhesion , and , of course , beauty . If you query whether you could encounter it again , or it is high-priced , try out to redeem it . You ’ll also want to save the Dahlia pinnata Aunt Clarice cave in you the right way before she had to give up gardening . She ca n’t give you another , and it ’s not the same to grease one’s palms a new one online . And if you really hump a plant , essay to keep it . With a bit of destiny it will grow larger next year ; as a bonus , you may be able to separate it .

Once you adjudicate to save a plant , you then have to decide how to overwinter it . Does it want to be keep growing , or can it be allow to go dormant?I’ll provide some mind of how to do both .

None of the overwintering method covered here get with a guarantee that every flora will live on every wintertime . conceive of this as an experimentation , and endeavor to be OK with the idea that some plants will die . I secern plant two thing when they come in for the winter : “ subsist or pass , it ’s your option , ” and “ If you die , I can replace you with something New and pretty . ” In reality I may not be so carefree , but the plant life do n’t need to know that . Here are my tips for give your plants the dear prospect at survival .

Keeping a plant growing is your surest bet

Some tropic plants are damaged at 40 ° F , and a hard freeze might belt down them . These should be the first ones dig up in fall , and they will need to be hold open growing indoors to survive winter . Like most people , I ca n’t offer stark growing shape for the plants I bring inside . A works that prefers a south windowpane may have to endure a Frederick North windowpane . Nobody will be produce tropic temperatures , so my home ’s typical winter temperature must do . I do not try for thoroughgoing plants ; my goal is for them to live . If you wish to reach for better , you have my blessing .

Basic prep

Plants this works best for

This method acting works for a host of plant too numerous to lean . If you ’re not certain a plant can go dormant during the winter , test twist it into a irregular houseplant . Here are a few illustration :

Dormant plants are easy to care for and take up less space

I actually prefer tropicals that can go torpid over the winter . These plant can be store in a cool , grim lieu ; the main thing is to keep them from freeze down . Once they are put away , you could essentially brush off them until natural spring . However , it is a good mind to hold your plants at least once a calendar month and to give them a low amount of piss if they are bone ironical . If a plant is stored in an assailable charge card bag , the monthly check also offer a chance to open that pocketbook wider if the plant life is too wet . If some plant push growth when they are supposed to be dormant , do n’t interest about it . This is normal , since we can not leave the ideal temperature and moisture condition for perfect dormancy . cerebrate of it as having a jump embark on on spring .

Before digging up plants that will be stored torpid , countenance them to be off by Robert Frost at least once ; this will facilitate to ease them into their dormant state . Then remove all remaining foliage and most of the soil from their radical , disregardless of how they will be stored .

Basic prep for dormant storage

Method 1: Store fleshy roots in wood shavings

The rootstock or tubers of some industrial plant can be lay in in woodwind shavings . This method acting takes up very trivial space and is a good solution for plants with fleshy , durable roots . set aside the root to dry out for a few days before storing .

Method 2: Cut back the top and pot it up

I wish to pot up sure plants . compare to sacking , this method can give smaller industrial plant a better chance at surviving dormancy . However , this method acting is a turn more time consuming , and the plants will be heavy and toilsome to move .

Method 3: Store them in plastic bags

I have a lot of plant to stack away and modified infinite , so my go - to method for many plants is to drop them into plastic bags and hive away them in a nerveless , dark spot .

sealed big plant I simply prepare as if I were potting them up , then I drop them into undefendable credit card bagful . I earmark other industrial plant to dry for about a week , after which I stash away them in tied plastic bags .

By experimenting over the years , I have see that many plants are less demanding than I thought . For example , my colocasia have had a 100 % natural selection rate when stored in bond plastic bags .

Tip : Do n’t forget to label!You believe that you ’ll retrieve , but trust me , you will forget everything by next spring . Use flagging tape ( sell in home centers and hardware stores ) and a permanent marker to create labels that can be tied easily onto private plant .

Open plastic bags

Open plastic bags work best for

Tied plastic bags

Tied plastic bags work best for

Irvin Etienne is the horticultural display coordinator at Newfields in Indianapolis .

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