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Tuesday, September 21, 2021

September 21, 2021 Saving Garden Plants for growing inside

Hi gardeners 

This beautiful tropical hibiscus blooms
inside all winter

Tomorrow is fall equinox and for many of us it means time to think about moving the gardening activities inside.  A house is not a home without plants inside. I will begin working on the job tomorrow as we are in for some cool wet weather.  I am not looking forward to all the lifting and carrying to bring my jungle inside, but I am usually pleased when it's done.  Most of my houseplants go outside for summer and as it starts getting colder, vacation time for them is over.  It's always quite the task to find room for all of them as they grow bigger each year and I always add something new each year I want to save.

Many people seem to be confused as to what plants in the garden you can save and winter inside.  So I have written this article to help guide you in choosing which plants to save.

What Garden Plants Can I Save for Next Year?

If you are in zone 6 or lower you are probably thinking about bringing in the houseplants and it’s time to do so. Most gardeners in planting zones 6 and lower will experience frost before October 15, in an average year.  Your houseplants and any garden plants you want to save must be brought inside before frost or freezing temperatures.

Of course, you will bring your tropical houseplants inside but there are many other plants you can bring inside that will overwinter and you won’t have to purchase them again next year. Some tender perennials that are over-wintered inside become large, attractive plants that would be impossible to obtain with one summer’s growth outside.

True annual plants are plants that complete their life cycle in a single year. These plants won’t do well indoors and should be allowed to perish, despite how pretty they look. You may be able to cover them through a few frosts to prolong their outside life. These plants include marigolds, zinnias, cosmos, tithonia, nasturtiums, morning glories, sweet alyssum, sunflowers, dill, and basil.

Petunias and million bells (calibrachoa) are actually tender perennials (see below) but plants that have been growing outside all summer don’t do well when brought inside. You could try rooting a few cuttings to bring inside if you really want to save them.

Tender perennials are often plants we treat like annuals, allowing them to die with the first frost or at least a freeze. Many people don’t realize that some of these common garden plants are really perennials and if wintered inside will last for years.

Plants that can be overwintered inside at normal room temperatures and enjoyed all winter are below. These plants need temperatures that stay above 55 degrees, bright light and moderate watering over winter.

Abutilon,

agaves,

allamanda,

These two pots, ginger and begonias on the left and
fuchsia and begonias on the right could be brought inside
as is or  the plants could be potted separately.

aloes,

begonias (fibrous rooted and cane type),

bougainvillea,

coleus,

echeveria,

eucalyptus, 

fuchsia,

gardenias,

ginger lilies,

goldfish plant,

hibiscus (tropical),

impatiens,

Joseph’s coat (Alternathera ficoidea),

kalanchoes,

kangaroo paws,

lantana,

lemon grass,

lemon verbena,

lipstick plant,

livesaver plant (Huernia zebrina),

Setcreasea pallida
lofos

mandevilla

oxalis,

polka dot plants,

ornamental peppers,

rex begonias,

“spikes” (dracaenas),

sensitive plant,

Setcreasea pallida 'Purple Heart',

sweet bay,

sweet potato vines

 

Tender fruiting plants like the various citrus family members, papaya, pomegranate, and figs that aren’t hardy to your area can be wintered inside in warm conditions. Pomegranate and some figs may lose leaves and go semi-dormant in mid-winter.

Note: the category “succulents” covers many species of plants with many different needs. Some can be planted outside even in colder zones, some need winter dormancy and some do not.  Some will do nicely inside, others won’t. You need to find out the species of succulent you have to know what its winter requirements are.

Garden geraniums (pelargoniums) are a special case.  You can bring them into a warm bright room, and they will bloom all winter. Or you can let them go dormant in a cool place.

Instead of bringing whole plants inside you can sometimes take cuttings of plants and over winter small plants you start from them.  It is better to start these plants outside in late summer, and then bring in the small pots before frost. However, if frost threatens and it seems to be too much work to bring a large plant inside, take a few cuttings and try your luck.

This pretty ivy geranium can bloom inside all winter


Plants that need protected dormancy

There are other plants that you may want to overwinter inside in a cool spot. These will go dormant but will start growing again in spring when placed outside. These are plants that need some winter chill or resting period to grow well but can’t survive the cold of northern winters (zone 6 and below).

A cool spot is one above freezing, the low 40’s are ideal. The pots will need occasional watering but shouldn’t get too wet. Some plants will lose their leaves and that’s fine. Once the leaves have died on some of these, they won’t need much water at all. An unheated attached garage or unheated porch or basement may be a good place for these.  They should not be allowed to freeze.

Plants that need some dormancy or can tolerate it for winter storage include;

Argyranthemum,

I let brugmansia continue to bloom inside for a month
or so, then move them to cool, dormant  storage 
banana species,

brugmansia,

diascia,

Iochroma,

jasmine,

rosemary,

perennial reeds, sedges and grasses not hardy to your zone,

perennial salvias not hardy to your zone,

passionfruit vines.

Potted mums you used for fall decorations can be trimmed back to about 3 inches after blooming stops and overwintered in a cool place. In spring they will start growing again and can be planted in the ground outside. Many will survive the next winter in the ground.

Vegetable and herb plants

It’s true that tomatoes and peppers are perennial plants. But don’t try to overwinter the ones that grew in your garden, these will usually succumb to fungal diseases they picked up outside and are just too difficult to acclimate to indoor conditions.  Instead start new plants from seed in late summer – somewhere away from your garden plants or inside. You will need a grow light for success with these.

Don’t try bringing other vegetables inside. Under a grow light you can grow salad greens inside but start them from seed indoors. Chives can be potted and brought inside and will grow on a sunny windowsill or under grow lights, but most other herbs do not like indoor conditions. Sometimes basil can be grown from seed but often has disease problems inside. Some newly started thymes and mint may grow for a while under grow lights.

Lavender, sage, oregano, and rosemary do not like warm indoor conditions. They can overwinter in cool dormancy.

Tender bulbs and tubers

Bring these bulbs or tubers into a cool but not freezing area, with natural daylight, and leave the bulbs in pots to die back. After the foliage dies cease watering, keep above freezing, and then begin watering again in March, and place in full sun.

Caladiums,

calla lilies,

Colocasia- (elephant’s ears and taro),

Leave calla lilies in their pots to die back, then store.

Eucomis- (pineapple lilies)

peacock orchids,

rain lilies,

tuberous begonias

Other tender bulbs like cannas, glads, dahlias, crocosmia, etc. can be dug after a light frost kills the foliage and stored dry, with foliage cut off, in peat moss, sand, wood shavings or vermiculite.  They must be dug before a hard freeze.

What not to bring inside

Besides the true annuals and most vegetables listed at the beginning of the article don’t bring perennials that are hardy to colder zones (7 and below) inside for winter.  They need cold dormancy to survive. As mentioned above you can sometimes protect perennials that aren’t winter hardy to your zone but try to avoid purchasing plants that aren’t winter hardy where you live. These plants cannot be wintered in warm conditions. It can be tricky to give them enough cold but not too much cold.

Don’t bring in deciduous trees and shrubs, evergreen trees and shrubs, roses, fruit trees such as apples, pears, peaches and cherries, nut trees, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and grapes. Strawberries can be grown inside under grow lights but use newly started plants, don’t dig up garden plants. They won’t grow well on windowsills. Some mini roses are sold for inside growing, but don’t bring in garden roses. “Native” plants should not be brought inside for winter.

Most water plants don’t do well inside either. Like succulents each species has different requirements, and you need to know the conditions for winter these species prefer. If the water plant is hardy in your zone in a natural pond it probably won’t do well inside because it needs winter dormancy. Some tropical water plants may overwinter inside, but it’s hard to maintain the right conditions for them. I have tried to overwinter water hyacinths several times with no luck.

Preparation

If the plants you want to save are growing in the ground they should be dug up and carefully potted. If they are crammed into a container with other plants, it would be wise to separate the different plants and pot them separately.

Plants that are in containers that aren’t crowded can be brought inside in the pots they were growing in. Check the plants and the pots carefully so you don’t bring in small surprise guests like frogs and mice. Use a good, lightweight potting soil if you need to re-pot tender perennials you are bringing inside. 

Some insects can become a big problem indoors if they hitch a ride inside. It is a good idea to spray plants with an insecticide or use a systemic insecticide on them the day before you bring them inside.  If you do it outside you won’t pollute your indoor air and surfaces.  And the insecticides won’t impact pollinators inside your home. However, if you have pets that munch on leaves indoors you may want to skip the insecticide.

Don’t try to save too many tender perennials unless you have a big greenhouse. (Even I close my eyes and leave some behind.) Just save the most expensive, rarest or your personal favorites.  You can propagate cuttings from one or two plants for a new border of impatiens rather than trying to save the whole border. All plants need room and good light and the more you have, the more time you will spend caring for them. Trust me, I know.



Kim Willis

Copyright 2021 - This article is not to be reproduced without permission

 

 

Friday, September 10, 2021

September 10, 2021 Bees and Bulbs

The time is here for planting bulbs of those spring blooming plants that are so nice to see when the snow melts and soft breezes waft the aroma of sun percolated soil  to our noses. Our eyes crave flowers in spring. But there is another good reason to plant spring blooming bulbs.

Alliums of all types are bee favorites

Bees also crave flowers in the spring, in fact they are vital to bee survival.  As bees wake up and emerge from their winter homes, they go looking for flowers to feed on. There aren’t many things that bloom as early as spring blooming bulbs, and whether they are native species or not, bees will be very grateful to you for planting them.

Bees are attracted to blue, purple, white and yellow flowers in spring. Red, orange and pink flowers are not visited as much but some of the early spring flowers in those colors often have a yellow or white center that will attract bees. Luckily there are many spring blooming bulbs that will fulfill those bee desires.

Good spring flowering bulbs for bees are crocus, snowdrops, Anemone blanda (Windflowers), Corydalis solida, hyacinths, Muscari (grape hyacinths), Eranthus hyemalis (Winter Aconite), Ipheion, Chionodoxa, (Glory of the Snow), Pushkinia (Squill), Scilla, Ornithogalum (Star of Bethlehem), Erythronium, (Trout lilies, dogs tooth violets), Camassia, and alliums of all types.

Not all spring blooming bulbs are bee candy. Some common spring flowering bulbs don’t attract many bees, such as daffodils, narcissus,Fritillaria, Dutch iris and most tulips.  A few species tulips like T. bakeri and T. sylvestris are bee favorites as well as Fritillaria meleagris (Guinea Hen flower) in the Fritillaria family.

The bulbs of most bee friendly spring bloomers are small and should be planted in large drifts or groups. Most are inexpensive and buying 25-50 bulbs will cost you little. Plant them closely for the best show. Many of these beauties will multiply for you over the years into larger and more glorious shows.


Crocus

Some bulbs like crocus and snowdrops bloom very early, sometimes through the snow, and other bulbs like alliums bloom later in spring.  Planting a variety of these small bulbs helps the bees throughout spring. And it keeps the garden looking pretty too.

And the good news is that many of these early blooming bulbs are not deer favorites and will be left alone when they bloom. But the bulbs may be eaten by mice and squirrels shortly after you plant them.  And because they are planted shallowly, they are also subject to being heaved out of the ground during freezing and thawing.

To keep them from being eaten by mice and squirrels do not use bonemeal when planting. Bonemeal attracts these animals.  Also mulch bulbs lightly with chopped straw, leaves or chipped bark after planting to help disguise the disturbed soil. This also helps to prevent frost heaving.

If you plant the bulbs early you can often tuck them under perennial plants like hosta and daylilies and the pests will be less likely to find them. They will come up and bloom before your perennials get large.

Small spring blooming bulbs are excellent to plant under deciduous trees in woodland settings. They will complete their life cycles before the shade gets dense in most cases.  But they are also nice in the front of beds and close to the house so you can see them in early spring when you really need to see flowers. The bees will find them wherever you plant them.


Glory of the Snow

Most of the bulbs mentioned are hardy to zone 5 and many to zone 4 or even lower. Check the zone hardiness when purchasing. But if you live in warmer zones, zone 8 and higher, you will need to buy pre-chilled bulbs as they won’t get enough winter cold to bloom.

Now is the time (early fall) to purchase spring blooming bulbs and you can plant them until your ground freezes solid. Buying your bulbs from reputable mail order nurseries (most have websites too) usually gives you better results and better-quality bulbs than buying them in a big box store.

Some bulb companies I like are;

McClure and Zimmerman  https://www.mzbulb.com/

John Scheepers  https://www.johnscheepers.com/

Colorblends (for larger quantities), https://www.colorblends.com/

 

I know it can be tedious planting a 100 or so little bulbs but the more you plant, the better you’ll like the show.  (Some things like the larger alliums won’t need as large a display to make a statement.) You’ll quickly get a rhythm and method mastered as you plant your bulbs, and the job won’t seem as daunting. You’ll be surprised how many you can plant in a few hours. Many people plant bulbs as they do the fall garden clean up.

Add some more bulbs each year and try something different each year too. Bulbs are a quick and inexpensive way to brighten the garden in spring while you wait for the perennials and shrubs to begin blooming. And the bees will be happy you thought of them as well.











Winter aconite  top
Anemone Blanda -windflowers
Hyacinths - Bottom






























Friday, September 3, 2021

September 3, 2021 Grading the garden

 Well, it’s September.  I dreaded it as a child because it meant summer vacation was over. I dread it as an adult because it means summer is over. Things haven’t changed much.

This month we see the autumn equinox on September 22, which is the calendar start of fall. But meteorologists use September 1, as the start of the fall season.  So get out that pumpkin spice stuff.

If you go out in the evening you know the daylight hours are becoming shorter much faster now, you can almost tell it from day to day. As the nights grow longer, they have more time to cool off so clear nights from now on are going to get chilly. I don’t mind that at all- until we get to the frost part.

Yep, that’s coming soon. Everyone in zones 6 and lower needs to keep an eye on the weather – looking ahead a few days to give yourself time to prepare.  While you can cover tomatoes and your blooming annuals a few times, your tropical plants need to be inside before even a light frost hits.  Covering them isn’t a good idea.

 I’m planning on cutting back a little on houseplants. Well, we’ll see anyway. My porch should be warmer this year and maybe more things can go out there. But I will still need to be moving some things around to accommodate the bigger sized plants that will be coming back inside.  And I have got to get lights and timers hooked up- September is always fun here.

This is the time when I evaluate my garden season and I give this one at best a C grade.  There were too many temperature extremes, too much variability and for us, not enough rain.  I know that may surprise some of you. Just a few miles south of here and to the west of us rain totals for the season pick up. And when you get to Detroit and some other southern areas they had an exceptionally wet season. Too bad we can’t spread it around.

Anyway, most gardens in the state of Michigan had problems one way or another. And we aren’t the only states.  I suppose somewhere people are having great garden years but many of us aren’t. We are going to transition into the La Nina weather pattern sometime some, so the experts say and that is going to alter the weather probably the opposite of what you had this year, so stay tuned.

In my garden the toad lilies and sweet autumn clematis are blooming and there isn’t much left that still has to bloom. The autumn sedums are starting to color up and the snakeroot is just starting to bloom.  I have one or two mums that are just starting to bloom.  Some of my mums have been blooming for a couple weeks now.  Soon it will all be over.  But right now, it’s still pretty colorful.

 I am still getting a few tomatoes and I see a melon or two.  But I will definitely give my food garden a C- this year. I don’t think it was the grow bags I used, although it didn’t help that it was so dry, and they dry out fast.  It was disease and other problems caused by the weather extremes.  Like everyone else is mentioning the tomatoes seem to be ripening very slowly and I fought all summer to keep the fungal problems controlled. Lettuce did well, but cukes did not.  Melons are producing but late and slow.

So, what will I do differently next year? I’m going to work on a water system for those grow bags and another way to keep weeds down between them. One thing I will say is that the one marihuana plant I have loves the grow bag and is the nicest plant in the garden.

 In the main flower bed, I have a spot that remained empty much of the year. I need to find something to plug in there.  It had a rose I hoped would mature and fill in, but the rose is not working there at all. It needs to have pink or purple flowers since there is so much gold and yellow in that area, or maybe a deep red.  I do have a red hardy hibiscus close to the area and maybe a deep pink one would work there.

Next year I probably will not plant petunias in the front bed since the perennials have matured and there just isn’t any “front edge” left for them by mid-summer, they are buried under larger plants. They do look nice early when the perennials aren’t at full expansion but later, they disappear.  And the clethra I have in that bed was buried this year by rudbeckia and sedums.  I’ll be moving it this fall.

 As the oak by the driveway has grown so has my shadier areas. The deck used to be full sun much of the day, but now it’s shaded about half the day.  The front border stays shady a bit longer in the morning as the tree is to the east of them. Already the lilies on the east end aren’t getting enough sun and will need to be moved. I’ll have to decide if I need to switch more plants from shade to sunnier areas too.

I’m going to expand the garden just a bit on the west side of the cedar trees. I’ll be clearing that area out this fall.  It’s not too large of a spot and it’s shady. I’ll probably stick with hosta, astilbe and maybe a few woodland natives.  I have hosta seedlings I can move.  On the east side of the house north of the deck I am going to try and rip out the common daylilies again. Some of the hopniss vine has to go too. I have done it 3 or 4 times in the past and they always come back. It’s a smaller area too, but I would like to have something there that’s prettier.

It’s time to order fall bulbs- well past time.  I have procrastinated this year. I love tulips but it’s always a gamble with the deer around.  Last spring, they didn’t bother much but you never know what they will do next spring.  I always pick one new species of bulb to try, and I am going through catalogs trying to decide which of the few I haven’t grown that I want to try.

What grade do you give your garden efforts this year?  What are your fall garden plans and what are you doing differently next year?  And most important- what new bulbs or plants are you going to try next year?

 

For it’s a long, long while from May to December. But the days grow short when you reach September. — Maxwell Anderson

 

Buy those bulbs so spring will be pretty

Kim Willis