When do your House Plants come in for the winter?

I'm always afraid I'll leave it too late, but I don't want anyone to freeze. I usually wait too long and have my DH and DDs running around like... like... well, like people that are running around! I'd like to do it more gradually this year. When do you think is a good time to start?

xxxxxx, Carrie

Our average first killing frost is about mid to late Oct. I like to get mine in well before that, so they can become acclimated to the indoors before heat is needed. I bring mine in around the last of September. I have a lot that I drag in every fall ! Since I have no greenhouse it is a chore fitting them all into the house and utility room. :-(

I *always* say I'll do it gradually....but it never happens.
We'll probably get frost mid-September.....and it's always a mad dash!
Just like you, Carrie....I've got everyone else in on it, too!

One good thing is that I can put most of them in the garage....but that can be a problem too.....then I have a garage full of plants that I can't enjoy...can't get to all to water....etc.....
I think I might just start 'de-buggin' (LOL!) this weekend and bring a few in....thanks for the reminder!

LOL, Nan. My DH, shortly after complimenting me on how big the Elephant Ears had gotten, said "now I hope you're not going for a really jungle-y look this winter.... Hunh? I guess he doesn't understand about wintering house plants!

xxx, Carrie

Ditto, Nan! I started debugging this past weekend. I whip out my big guns for the plants that have summered outdoors. Sheer brute force, I tell you. Systemic and Neem Oil. And THEN, I isolate them for at least a month after they're back inside. Why do I take myself through this every year? LOL Every year I say to myself, "Nope. Not taking 'em out t his year. Too much work to bring 'em back in." And every year they end up outdoors! LOL Anways, they'll stay out there til the end of September, except for my Christmas Cacti. I'll leave them out til the first frost.

GH

I work better under pressure and bust buns to get it done at the last minute, read: first frosty night. Winters have been milder and I can leave the hardier plants under the front porch roof with a cover. The tender ones get moved to the enclosed back porch or the enclosed outdoor shelter. I have always accumulated more than I can move in so sacrifice some to the cold weather gods in hope of having an easier winter. If we ever have a grim one, I will be crying... pod

I've already brought 2/3rds in although I would probably have another month for them to be outside.

I've left the succulents out and may leave them out all winter this year-it just depends.

Susan

Grow Happy,

NOT let your p;ants outside for the summer? All winter, they've had their noses pressed to the glass, saying "when can we go outside? when can we go outside? when can we go outside? when can we go outside? when can we go outside?" and I try to stay patient and say "in the spring" in my calmest voice. Then, come March 21st, there's pracically a revolution, all the pushing and crowding and shoving! (Plants, particularly house plants, tend to be very literal.) And then I have to explain that if it freezes again, they'll be dead. "But Ma'am" one of the braver ones says in his ghostly voice, the few yellowing leaves he has left rustling against each other. He's had a hard winter, I can tell, his first one with me. In fact, it's possible I forgot about him altogether. "Ma'am" he continues, "some of us are already dead in here."

My point is, GH, that sometimes, my plants have to survive from October to April without much help from me. [Sometimes, only sometimes, and she looks innocently at the jury.] To deprive them of their summer vacation, when Mother Nature takes over the job of watering and providing the sun, would be tantamount to planticide!

I better stop now, before I write a bad short story!!!!

xxxxx, Carrie

Carrie, you are tooooo funny. LOL. My plants speak the same language!

Lol! But, Carrie, what about those bad bugs who come by to munch on our plants during their outdoor vacation? I feel so guilty.....I feel like they're saying, "See, mom, I told you! See, look at my leaf!!! Is that a mealy bug? Mom!!!! It bit me!!!!! Please don't take us outside again. We beg of you, please don't make us go!!!! LOL LOL LOL

GH

You guys are microphobic? Arachnophobic? Can't take a few little ole spiders?

What is a mealy bug, anyway? Maybe we don't have them here.

How do you get rid of these things, if, in fact, they exist, which I'm not saying they do?

{Carrie)

This message was edited Sep 2, 2006 1:15 PM

You know, this is a subject that takes up a LOT of my time.

Lots of my houseplants stay outside year 'round. All of the nematanthus stay out and bloom much more in the winter than they do in the hot summer. The gianormous philodendrons stay out all year. My big spider stays out and all of the hoyas. Some nights I'll put a sheet over them. I don't get frost here though.

In November sometime, when the nights get down in the 50s, I have to make the "Big Move". I drag about 30 anthuriums and their accompanying plant stands, hangers, etc. to work with me. Some of them have gotten pretty big this year. Debugging consists of trying to shake all of the lizards out but I end up with a few xtra clingy ones coming in anyway. I work in a veterinary clinic so it's ok to bring lizards to work.

By December all of the stapeliads, earth stars and some other odds and ends will come in the house. And actually, I've had to bring in some philos & peperomias now because they are getting too much sun and heat. I may try to put them out again later.

Basically I move stuff in and out, in and out all year. Sometimes we have really warm spells in the dead of winter and I can put things out for a few days to get some sun and soak them really well with the hose. By mid to late March I'm moving everybody back out again. Then hurricane season starts in June and I'm dragging everybody in for the storms (except for this year...knock on wood).

It's kind of a pain because if I were just a little further north or a little further south, there would be a lot less shuffling!

Well, Heather, I'd have to write it first, LOL.
xxxx, Carrie

I'd really like to know how to make sure I don't bring in any creepy crawlers, cuz I found this nasty in my yard yesterday. Now, I'm warning you, don't look if you are afraid of spiders or if they gross you out. The pics of mine are further down the thread, but it's the same type of spider through the entire thread.

Ick, yuck, gross, ewwWWWwww!!!!

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/641426/#new

She has also left me an egg sac, filled with 300 -1400 like her.


Isn't she lovely, isn't she wonderful...la la la

Wait, Heather, in one thread she's icky and poo, yet in the other thread you advocate saving the lives of the (icky thousands of) baby spiders and all-natural free bug killers! Explain yourself woman!

xxxxxx, Carrie

They ARE icky and poo!!! I just posted over there again and my skin is still crawling. EwwWWww!!!

But, they are great bug eaters. They are very good at what they do, however disgusting it is, LOL!

I do advocate saving the lives of thousands of the icky little babies, when they are outside. If anything I said gave the impression that I liked these things then I gave the wrong impression! But, I'm not going to kill them simply because I don't like them...as long as they stay outside. Honestly, I'd probably put up a bit of winter protection for the babies if I thought they needed it, not because I like them, but because I respect life. Yep, they are great bug catchers...free, organic, etc. I'll take all of that, but most of what I said over there was to be taken as a joke...listing reasons why I shouldn't kill them.

Now, if I found one of these horrible things in my house I'd flip out! If my DH was at work I'd probably have to call the neighbor guy to come kill it for me. No, I'm not kidding. LMBO! You can't tell me it'd be ok with you if you woke up and found this thing running across your bed!!!

So, that's why I advocate saving the lives of thousands of icky, creeping looking babies, but want to nuke even the thought of any of them entering into my home.

LOL!!
I'm *not* looking!

I don't want to bring anything in either! We actually have the inside of the house sprayed once a year. I'm from up north originally and boy was it a shock to move to the south - land of giant roaches!

Wooconley..................Aaaamen! (to the giant roach thing). There's no freeze so they just grow and grow...forEVER. And how about the gigantic, five inch long, mutant, black and red, aroid eating, POISON grasshoppers?!?! I am scared to DEATH of those things and my cat won't even poke her nose out of the door down here.

P.S. I'm not from here either. Can you tell???? I love all of the little lizards though! A whole family of them live in my mailbox (it has holes...I have no idea why). Every summer there they are...sitting on my mail. A happy little green family hanging out on top of my bills.

I guess maybe that makes the bills easier to manage? Alll we ever find in our mailbox is rain and bills; lizards and bills would be a treat!



xxxxx, Carrie

Well, if you have Geico Insurance that could explain the lizard.

The lizards appreciate the condo you have provided and probably appreciate you more when the bills have YOUR name on them.

I believe spiders, yes even wood roaches, serve a purpose in life but when they trespass, they are dead meat! I will catch daddy longlegs and throw them out. The rest get stomped! The creepy one is the big spider that comes in when you open the door for a pet at night. I step on him quickly only to find out it was a her and zillions of babies who were along for the ride run in all directions. Major skin crawling!

NematanthusNut - Thanks (hear the sarcasm?) I've never seen the "gigantic, five inch long, mutant, black and red, aroid eating, POISON grasshoppers" Now I may never go outside again!

I too love the little lizards. I'm puzzled though. I see these little whitish, almost transparent things running around at night that I have just assumed are babies of the 4-5 inch green or brown gecko/lizards that are outside during the day. Are they? or are they some different species altogether?

Yes i have started the dreaded plant bringing in cycle, Although i live in North Caralina and i still have about a month and a half of nice weather, i did it all at once last year and lost alot of plants. Some of which did come back this year. So i figured i would do it gradually this year instead of the shock from outside to inside...I did not change soil though and have yet to see any creepy crawlings, I am however deathly afraid of spider and those earwigs thingings....EWWWWY PATOOOY. I was thinking of using neem oil, however do i just put it in the water when i give them a drink or do i just spray..cause usually i just spray the top of the soil when i see anything move in there..heheheh.


Thanks for the info :o)

Char

Hey Char,

The Neem oil won't do much good for those kinds of spiders. It seems to work better for sucking pests- scale, mealy, mites. I've actually sprayed Neem on garden spiders and they are completely unphased by it! They were still there in the following days!

GH

woo: those green/brown lizards I think you are talking about are common anole lizards. these the same guys that puff up their red throat thingy and do the little pushups to attract females and scare off other males?

I think the whitish ones you are talking about are probably little geckos. they are really pale with dark dark eyes?

either way, all the lizards are good luck because they eat bugs. my cats, however, like to call them lunch

I was wondering if i would water my plants with water and some rubbing alcahol in there would that kill the bugs and creepy crawlers...?


Char

The little green ones with the throat thingy (turn brown on brown surface) are anoles. I'm not sure about the others either. I always have a lot of them at the top of the front porch at night. I guess they are eating the bugs that come to the porch light and fly up to the ceiling. Anything that eats bugs around here is my friend!

As for the grasshoppers... http://davesgarden.com/bf/go/238/

They are incredibly destructive. And scarey!

I think if you watered a plant with rubbing alcohol, it would not be good for the plant.

xxxx, Carrie

I don't know about putting it into the soil directly, but I use a 70% alcohol spray on my succulents that have mealybugs, and it hasn't hurt them at all. I spray them after I water them, but some alcohol must get into the soil when I do it...maybe try it on a "disposable" plant?

Marsha.

Yikes! I don't have any plants with mealybugs... YET! (Frantically knocking on wood!)

xxxx, Carrie

I stand corrected.....my plants come in NOW!! TONIGHT!!! LOL!!
It's supposed to get to 35 tonight and frost.....and I've done it again....brought in a few a week ago, but I've procrastinated yet again this year.

We did plan ahead a little bit and took about 1/2 of them into the garage last night, so at least there's not so much to be done tonight.

But....all those plants in the garage still have to be 'de-bugged' and then taken indoors, soon!

YIKES!, Nan, so soon? Ah, fall, Hallowe'en and Thanksgiving, shopping and WinterSowing, Christmas, and New Years. This is a idiotically dumb question, but does the Winter Equinox come at different times in different places?

xxx, Carrie

Good question, Carrie...and I'm afraid I don't know the answer!

I do know, though, that around 9/15 is just about right for our first frost, and we do live in the valley, so we seem to get frost even earlier than those on the hill/ridge tops.
It could go another month, even, afer this, without another frost, but there's always a 'threat' about this time of the year.

My DH always says that when you hear the very first crack of lightning in the spring, that you can count on frost 6 months later.....I just happened to remember, (this time, as I always thought that was a buncha 'hogwash'!) that 6 months from last winter/spring's first crack of lightning was, 9/18....so that's awfully darned close!!

Hmmmm. What about snow storms with thunder and lightening? Maybe his rule only goes for w/in WI state lines! Ho ho ho, I'm having one of those 'gee, I'm SO funny' days. LOL at myself.


xxx, Carrie

Yes, you've lots of those 'Things that make you go Hmmmmm' questions today, dontcha?! LOL!

(Sorry ..... don't know the answer to that one, either!) (Ü)

I brought in about half last night and the rest will soon follow. So much work to it to reorgaize the house and find room. I need a greenhouse.

I need a greenhouse to....i was thinking about getting one of these from fingerhut , but dont know if they are worth the money.
http://www.fingerhut.com/search.aspx?searchstring=greenhouse&cxid=5

I am bringing in all my plants, trying to de-bug them as well.i a few of them i did not de-bug and i am seeing some ants here and there....i did get some stuff to spray on them at walmar ( the plants, that is, not the ants). I just hate bringing them in cause i lose alot of houseplants over the winter, they never survive..so i thought if i brought them in alittle at a time and let them get used to being inside rather then just bringing them all in when it got cold.so far they seem to be doing good....although i have ALOT of lamps and lights on...i take me like 10 min at night to turn all my lamps and lights off at night..a few i have on timers...from 7 am to 9 pm, they are hanging lampsi found at a thrift store for .50 cents....i love them. anywho If anyone knows anywhere to get a cheap greenhouse.....lol @ cheap greenhouse...is that possible, please let me know.


Thanks,

Char

I brought in some last night. The ones that I thought couldn't stand a 2nd night of 40ish degree temps. (Read: I totally forgot the night before and left them ALL out there to fend for themselves in 45 degree temps). Sansevierias, Begonias, and 1 Philo. I brought more in today. I either sprayed in the sink or the shower. There were lots of little itty bitty spiders. Nothing traumatic, thank goodness. The ones I brought in today were: more begonias(yipes!!!!) and Hoyas. I feel so badly for them all. They were growing so nicely outside and loving the warm sunny weather. Now they have to gear up for long britches,sweaters and starvation. LOL Anyway, I still left some outside until the weekend or early next week. The night time temps are supposed to climb back up to the 60's over the weekend and through next week. The ones I left outside are, in my estimation, strong ones, or plants that like or can tolerate cooler temps. Plants like Philo 'Emerald Prince', all Amaryllis, Epis, Euphorbia Lactea(not sure about this one!), a couple of begonias, and other miscellaneous plants. Truth be told- ALL of my really big plants are still outside. I'm afraid to pick up the pots for fear of spiders or other creepy crawlers. LOL I'll brave it this weekend when the temps are 85 degrees! I'm such a wuss. LOL

Oh, one other thing, I started de-bugging 3-4 weeks ago. Spraying with Neem and using systemics on a select few. I will touch mostly all of t hem again with Neem, even the ones that are already inside. I bought a magnifying glass to help me see the juvenile pests that might be hanging on!!!! So far, so good. Although, I am skeptical about one or two of my epies.(raising eyebrows) LOL If it turns out to be scale, they will be tossed- with no second thoughts!!!!

GH