hi, i haven't posted on this forum yet, but i have a question that i'm sure you all can answer. i lived in the Keys for many years and had lots of container plants, but none that went dormant. now that i am in central florida i have been buying plants that do go dormant. i can't put them in the ground yet, probably not until next spring. my question is, do i water at all or leave them dry and how much light do they need in a dormant state? i have a small crepe myrtle, a couple of hibiscus moscheutos and a hibiscus coccineus. thanks, debi
question re: dormant container plants
Hi Deb! I hope I'm not out of my element here, never posted over here before either, but I think that you should water dormant plants sparingly, same light exposure as outside except lower levels, if that makes sense to you. This would mimic the conditions they will have outside once they are in the ground. Fall feeding with an organic fertilizer, to feed the soil with beneficial microorganisms, now is the time to apply that also, such as compost tea. BTW for evergreens (conifers), but probably only in my zone or colder, they need to be well watered in fall and then kept barely moist in winter. Do not prune your dormant plants, that actually encourages new (weak) growth and you don't want that, you want growth to "harden off" until spring.
Debi, good info from PrairieGirl. In Asheville (Z6b) I piled plants in containers in one spot, covered with 8-10 inches of leaves, and watered often until the grould froze... then not much but maybe monthly until sprig and I started pulling the leaves off. By May they were fine.
But, you have a very different zone. Maybe someone on the Florida forum mght have specific info. for you.
I'll be interested in specifics too, because I'm taking maybe 200 potted plants to central FL soon.