Gardening Granny's Gardening Pages: January 3, 2022 Flowers in Winter

Hi gardening friends

My new amaryllis

We got three inches of snow yesterday and its bitter cold, but the sun came out today. I saw it lighting up the orange geranium (pelargonium for the picky) in my kitchen window. I am amazed with that cutting, it has a big orange flower head that has held at least 2 weeks with no falling petals, no wilting, no browning. I transplanted it from the jar of water I rooted it in, to a pot of soil just as the first flowers were opening. I thought maybe it would drop that flowerhead from transplanting stress. I was wrong.

It probably has near perfect conditions in that window, strong light, cooler conditions, especially at night, and no wind or rain to mess up the flowers. But still it amazes me how long that single flower clump has lasted. And now I have another cutting in water getting ready to bloom, time to pot it up.

If you like blooming houseplants and have a sunny window you can’t go wrong with geraniums. As a girl I saved my money from babysitting to buy feed for the rabbits I raised for 4-H. My dad would drive me a few miles to a tiny village north of us called Gingellville, to a place called Bill’s Feedstore to buy my rabbit feed. I loved to browse in that place, while my dad waited impatiently in the car.

Old Bill, as everyone called him, was a small skinny man who looked to me to be 100 years old. He had a big picture window that faced south in the store. In that window were several huge geraniums easily 4 feet high and they were always loaded with big red blooms even in winter. I was fascinated with the plants because I had never seen geraniums that large and because they were blooming in winter.

One day I got up the nerve to ask him where he got the plants and he said he took them from the garden one year and he’d had them in the window at least 20 years. He told me geraniums were like weeds and then he broke off a piece and gave it to me. He told me to stick it in a pot of soil when I got home and keep it watered and it would grow into my own geranium plant.

My orange geranium - it was difficult to get a good shot
of it in the kitchen window. You can see the other cutting
getting ready to bloom.

I already had a bedroom window full of plants and I took it home and did just as Bill said. My grandma stored her geraniums that she grew in her flowerbeds in the summer in brown paper bags in her basement over the winter. She didn’t have room upstairs for them. She told me mine would take a bit of time to grow and bloom, and it did, but eventually I had a geranium in bloom in my bedroom window.

If you like flowers in the winter, as I do, the geranium is just the plant for you. You need a sunny window for them to bloom, but if you can give them south or west exposure, you’ll probably have flowers all winter. And geraniums come in many colors, upright and vining forms, variegated leaves almost as pretty as the flowers, and even scented leaves. If you tend to collect varieties of plants you like, then geraniums give you plenty of choices for collecting.

In the house geraniums need bright light for bloom, allow them to dry a little between waterings, feed them lightly once a month and if you can provide nights cooler than the day so much the better. You can bring in plants you had in the garden or in pots on the patio before it frosts or take cuttings from outside plants for smaller plants inside. Geranium cuttings root very easily in water or soil.

Geraniums aren’t the only plants that will bloom inside over the winter. The Chinese, or tropical hibiscus will thrill you with huge colorful blooms all winter if you have room for them. I have 5 huge red flowers on one in my bedroom, and some fluffy double pink flowers on a plant blooming in the living room. I have another hibiscus plant with yellow and red swirled flowers that isn’t blooming at the moment.

Most of the tropical hibiscus make small trees and can take up a lot of space but they are so worth it. They also need very strong light to bloom, being kept moist and fed once a month. Some bloom in cycles, blooming for a few weeks, then resting a few weeks. Like geraniums there are many colors, some variation in shapes of both flowers and plants, and some hibiscus even have pretty variegated foliage. These hibiscuses can go outside in the summer but can’t take any frost.

Here's my bedroom window with hibiscus and amaryllis
in bloom.

Other notable winter flowering houseplants are gerbera daisies, the holiday cacti, (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter), streptocarpus, African violets, the fibrous rooted begonias, small-flowered fuchsias, episcia, kalanchoe, dwarf pomegranate, and pentas.

Orchids have winter flowering types but can be tricky to grow. There are some jasmines that flower indoors in winter. Many lemon and other citrus bloom in winter, although the flowers aren’t that showy. Specialty catalogs have often have unusual species of plants that bloom in the winter.

The peace lily will flower on and off all winter if it has the right conditions. It needs much brighter light than most people tend to give it to flower well. Inside in winter the peace lily should be right in front of a south or west window or under a grow light. (In summer outside it is a shade plant, and it will tolerate lower light indoors but not bloom well.)

Amaryllis will flower inside in winter if started in pots in the fall. They then need a dormant period before blooming again. I lucked out with the new amaryllis I bought this fall. So far it has had four blooms and has another bud stalk developing. Adeniums can flower in winter but are quite expensive and can be tricky to grow. Sometimes florist type azaleas that spent the summer outside will bloom in the winter indoors.

You can experiment with a number of tender perennials inside for winter. I have had impatiens come up from seed dropped in larger pots during the summer, that were brought inside. They generally sprout around November and begin blooming in January and they will bloom all winter once they start. I have an evolvulus plant that is inside blooming off and on under a grow light.

Many plants you grow in the garden won’t bloom inside. Many perennials need a winter chilling period to set flower buds. Most annual plants that grew through the summer won’t continue in the winter. If you plant some annuals in pots in the fall you might get bloom in mid-winter when the days begin to lengthen. Beware some annuals also won’t grow without a chilling period for the seeds.

I have a morning glory seed that sprouted in a pot I brought inside this fall. Normally they would require some cold stratification to begin growing, but there it is. I’ll see if it will continue to grow and bloom. It’s in the south kitchen window in a pot of aloe that was outside this summer.

Another plant that I always have come up from seed in pots I bring inside is the woodland nicotiana. They require strong light inside and a lot of space because the plants get huge. Plants can reach 5 feet high and individual leaves 2 feet long. I have never transplanted them into their own pot and tried to get a large plant, although I have had some stunted plants actually bloom inside. This year I am experimenting with one transplanted into its own pot, although I don’t know if I’ll have room for it to mature.

Marigolds will sprout inside without any particular seed treatment, and you will get them to bloom in about 6 weeks if they are in a south window or under grow lights.

Miniature roses can bloom inside in the winter, but they need very strong light and tend to have lots of problems with insects and diseases inside. If you try to grow them inside use a south window or grow lights, you may need both, treat them with a systemic rose product for insects and disease and feed them regularly.

In winter there are a number of small potted plants sold for their colorful flowers that are a once and done thing too. After a short bloom period they either die or go dormant. This includes many pots of forced spring blooming bulbs, mums, pocketbook plant, alstroemeria and assorted other blooming plants. They can perk things up for a short time anyway.

Flowers brighten the winter days and there’s no reason to be without something blooming in the house in the dreary days when we are housebound. Foliage is nice but flowers really lift the spirits. If nothing else find some geraniums to light up your world.