Keeping plants indoors during the winter

[JanetM]

I have broght in some summer plants for the winter to see if I can keep them alive during the winter months. This year I have a Mandavilla (not sure how it is spelt) plant and so far so good. Has anyone else tried this?
What about other plants? I have been bringing in some baskets of Impatients and have been enjoying them during the drab winter months as they keep blooming.
Anyone want to share what they have done?

[plantsnobin]

I don't bother with annuals outside myself, unless maybe we are having a graduation party or something. Last year was our youngest daughters graduation, I bought a nice hanging basket and let it die after the party. The sad thing is still hanging on the porch. I don't do indoor plants as I am too lazy to water them. Except for one pot of Aloe, and I just watered it the other day for the first time in probably at least 8 months. I will pot of some of the babies for the gathering.

[cornishwoman]

I have a dessert rose,had it for around maybe 8 yrs and this winter I decided to cut it back as it was so leggy.Couldn't find that much info,so I just did it with a sharp razor blade and slanted the cuts towards the trunk,it secreted a lot of opaque white fluid, I was a bit drastic with cutting it back,but its branches were coming up to about 14 or 15 inches long. That was around christmas,well just last week I noticed little pale green nodes,it lives. My home is a jungle of plant. Last year I was given a lavender plant which is supposed to be quite happy indoors,was in bloom when I received it but since has not bloomed,so come early summer its off outside,maybe that will perk it up to bloom.

[mnjrutherford]

Lavender is definitely a summer bloomer. You have the right plan to set it out. Lavender is also relatively cold tolerant. It won't loose it's leaves but they do go "dark". Growth habit and cycles are a bit like rosemary. I have both outside as border plants. I'm planning to propagate them this year with the plan to have a denser border.

[blueadzuki]

I bring a couple of my potted herbs in over the winter. Which ones come in dont actually have a lot to do with which ones I use frequently (the two the top the lists are barely used at all) it's more along the lines of those herbs that are not suffcinetly cold hardy to make it trough a winter here and 1. tricky to get or 2. not easy to get started. The only two that make the list all of the time are my Tree basil (Ocimim grastissimum) (which is now on its third year and has reached a very respectable 2 or 3 feet tall) and my conehead thyme (Cordiothymus capitiatum) which I brough it on the grounds that I had to try foru or five times to get a plant settled and surviving and REALLY don't want to have to go through the process again if I dont have to. My cuban organo and broadleaf thyme are also in but they are besically just sprigs in the ground (this has nothing to do with the weather I just managed to outconsume the plants growths. There are some small citrus trees as well, but since those were started indoors and never left, I dont think they count. They all tend to take bein in pretty well, though the tree basil does have some problems (the moment it comes in I gets really bad whitefly, and all of my combatting efforts are usally just about enough to get it to limp through till warm weather whne it can go outside, shake the whiteflies and re grow whatever it lost (if it did't have whitefly it would praby be 5 or 6 fett tall by now, not 2 or 3)

[hiven]

I have several fatplants, cactus and 4 more other houseplants which I don't know their name, these always stay indoor the whole year. Outdoor plant that I bring in for overwintering are chilies and herbs (Spanish Thyme / Mexican Oregano, basils and Ashwaganda).
I don't have much space left at the windowsills so the rest of the frost tender ornamental will have to go... Things I can overwinter in tuber form are brought in since late autumn such as dahlias and begonia tubers.

[cornishwoman]

yup that's what I think also,I'm rather fond of this lavender,even when not in bloom theres a mild perfume to the room it has been living in.I have lavender bushes out side,most of them are set in old barrel's and some in the garden.I have a problem with flooding in the garden , spring and some times the fall ,so mostly I have been container gardening{old horse troughs} up till last spring that is when I decided I wanted a larger patch. I dug the veg patch on the highest peace of ground in the garden,but I still had to dig drainage ditches around it,that took longer than digging up the patch.I could do with raising the beds,but haven't got to that yet.O the name of the lavender is Goodwin Creek Gray.

[raymondo]

I have a curry leaf tree (Murraya koenigii) which has to come indoors as it's frost tender. I also usually have a tomato indoors to provide occasional fruit over the winter months. Both suffer from either whitefly, aphids or both. The curry leaf tree got bad scale last winter and hasn't managed to shake it off this summer so there'll be some soapy water treatments required before it comes indoors. Last winter I had a few chilli plants to make sure I got seed. I won't do chillies again because they suffer terribly from aphids.

[stevil]

Feb 28, 2010 15:56:38 GMT -5 raymondo said:

I have a curry leaf tree (Murraya koenigii) which has to come indoors as it's frost tender. I also usually have a tomato indoors to provide occasional fruit over the winter months. Both suffer from either whitefly, aphids or both. The curry leaf tree got bad scale last winter and hasn't managed to shake it off this summer so there'll be some soapy water treatments required before it comes indoors.

I have the same problem with my Murraya - scale and aphids! However, when it gets bad I just cut it right down to ground level and it quickly sends up new fresh shoots from the roots - a coppiced Curry plant! This gives me more than enough leaf for curries (you don't need much).

[ottawagardener]

I bring in rosemary, bay (not hardy here) and some chili peppers normally. I don't really have any problems except some small bodied pests on occasion. This year, a scotch bonnet got a lot of aphids but I keep squishing them and that seems to be keeping them in check. It's isolated from the other plants. Not all chilis seem as happy to come inside as others. A jalapeno bit the dust but another C. annuum, a long red cayenne has been alive for at least 4 years (can't remember exactly now, may be 5). I found a ladybird/beetle upstairs and stuck it on the aphid infested plant. Go ladybug go.

Oh I do occasionally bring in garlic chives and mint. They both do really well even in low lights.

[JanetM]

It is March and I am so ready to get all these flowers outdoors again. My Madevilla vine survived its first winter. I am so glad as I love these plants and last summer the prices came down enough for me to try one. I am fugal, sorry folks. But I won't pay the high prices for flowers but will sure 'barter' for them. The Impatience look good to and one on its 4th year. I like to take out the 'babies' from the mother plant for the hanging baskets and will cut the mother plant back to see if it will take off again and it usually does.