Finding a Home For Our Plants

I’m sure we’ve all noticed that the leaves are changing colors. In our last blog, we told you that the madman considers fall the start of the new gardening season. In addition to putting our gardens to bed, we have to move a bunch of plants from their summer home to their winter home – a home that is free of frost and cold. You may call it overwintering plants.

Overwintering Plants

So now, we’re getting them ready for the move. For some, like the Cannas, overwintering is easy – let the frost kill the leaves, dig up the bulbs, dry them and store them. For others, like the Brugmansias, we whack them back, soil drench the roots and put them in a dark spot for a period of winter dormancy. But we have others that require a little more thought.

In our early years, overwintering plants was quite challenging – they all fought for window space. The dormant plants still went in the basement back then; the cacti were in the living room; succulents in the bedroom; citrus near the windows and under the skylights – the rest were tucked in wherever we found a spot with the correct light.

Lights Made A Difference

Then the madman discovered lights. He’d been using florescent tubes for seed starting. Why not use them for overwintering cacti and succulents? So, he set up lots of lights in the basement – giving the madman the chance to keep adding to his collections.

Throughout the house, we added grow lights to pole lamps and began to set up plant gardens in spaces with no outdoor light. Before long, the madman outgrew all the extra space the lights gave us. He kept collecting and the plants kept growing.

From Grow Lights To A Greenhouse

Our next step was a greenhouse. Pike from Maine Garden Products told us it would only be a three-season structure when we bought it. The mad accepted that for the first year. But then he felt it would be an interesting challenge to use it for overwintering plants. He had a lot of plants that could get by at 40°. So, we insulated the north wall and used a small electric heater.

Since then, we have added a second greenhouse, and we discovered an efficient heating system – the Bio Green Palma with thermostat. The madman can set the heater to come on only when the temperature drops. For now, we have space for everything. So, moving them in isn’t just a matter of their survival. I think it’s become a matter of our survival. We like overwintering plants in the house. Some people call them houseplants. But we call them our house gardens because we group them according to the care they need.

We Help Each Other

While we’re busy caring for them, they’re busy caring for us. Thanks to these plants, our indoor air is constantly renewed. Through the process of photosynthesis, they remove the carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the air and release Oxygen (O₂). They brighten our spirits – instead of looking out the windows to a dreary winter landscape, we see green leaves and growing tips reminding us that soon everything will start growing again. Much like our outdoor gardens, these plants do require our attention. We have to keep the plants hydrated, bug-free and fed. That’s why we separate them according to their needs.

Water Overwintering Plants Right

First the hydration. Some of the madman’s plants are succulents. These guys don’t require that much water during the winter, so we let the soil dry out between waterings. Keeping them too moist will cause their roots to rot. The madman has them on a two-week schedule, watering them every other week.

On the other hand, the Citrus don’t like to be bone dry at all. Their leaves will begin to curl and drop off without water. They get a drink every week. Then there’s the Papyrus who actually sit in their own tub of water throughout the winter. The madman just makes sure the tub never dries out.  Other plants, like the Rosemary absolutely hate sitting in water. Usually, these plants benefit from a good spritzing every week or so.

Feed Overwintering Plants Lightly

Since we’re talking about water, let’s talk about feeding the plants because when we feed our plants, we use a water-soluble fertilizer mixed at half strength. Our goal is to keep our plants happy, not actually growing since winter growth tends to be spindly. When we come out of the Persephone Period in February, we’ll increase the fertilizing rates.

Deter The Bugs

The one thing that remains constant with overwintering plants is bug-watch. This process starts even before the plants move in with us. The madman sprays the leaves with an organic bug killer to prevent hitchhikers from coming in. Then he drenches the soil with an ivory liquid solution (1 tbs. Ivory liquid to 1 gal. water) to smother any bugs hiding in the soil or root systems. In addition, we pull each plant out of its pot to make sure there are not potential colonies of insects that survive the drenching. The madman can still remember the parade of ants marching out of a Rosemary plant on the kitchen windowsill. He never wants to see that again.

Once the plants are inside, bug-watch continues all winter. Remember, bugs are persistent and they will wait until you let your guard down. So, we don’t let our guard down. This comes from lessons learned. The plants look great in January, then overnight it seems they are crawling with bugs – not a pleasant task to deal with.

Common Insect Pests

With the plants we bring in, our most common pests are aphids, scales and mealy bugs. We hope our preventative measures work and we don’t bring any of them in. But deep down we know some will manage to sneak through the madman’s defenses. Once the plants are inside, all we can do is watch for any bug activity. We use cloths and Q-tips soaked in alcohol to remove these insects whenever we see them. We know that if we keep the plants healthy, we have a better chance of keeping the bugs at bay.

Know Your Plant

Perhaps the best advice we can give you about bringing plants in for the winter is “get to know your plant.” If you know its origins, you’ll know what environment it likes. Make it feel at home and it will keep you happy.

Time for a break before we move more plants in. Looks like it will be a lemonade break.