Bringing plants back in for winter- chore, fun? tips?

but how to care for a SG without the 'sunny morning room' that all of but critter have total envy over?
worst case, i will try to keep it barely alive with limited watering an what light i can get it. as Gita showed with her begonia, i think maybe more things than we think can be just barely kept this way for rejuvenation in spring, as long as we don't rot them w too mch water.

Thanks for the responses! Keep'em coming! I went to the GardenWeb site and found out something I should have already known and thought I would share it with yall. I subscribe to Garden Gate magazine but have never gotten their on-line tips or even gone to the web site. I followed a link from the Garden Web site forum on geraniums to the Garden Gate web site and they have oodles of information on articles from previous magazines and even a few video clips teaching "how to's". I found one on saving geraniums for over the winter that was just what I was wanting to know. Just wanted to share such a wonderful wealth of information.
Shirley

A guy I chat with at the farmer's market says that scented geraniums will overwinter on any windowsill... he keeps them in every room of the house! Little pots of cuttings will also do fine under lights, pretty much indefinitely.

Holly,

I just went outside and, to my amazement, 5 of the purple datura seed pods had split. There were none yesterday!

Just goes to show that you have to check every day.

Lookie here!

There is a post on the datura Forun on how to tekll if the seed pods are ready to harvest.
This link was provided bt Xeranthemum. Very helpful!

HYPERLINK@www.xeramtheum.com

Gita

Gita,

The link you have above is for an email. I tried also www.xeramtheum.com and www.xerantheum.com but neither work. Was it a link to the Datura forum somewhere on Daves?

Edited to say: nevermind, I found the link on the Dat forum http://www.xeramtheum.com/Daturaseeds.htm

I don't know why your link pasted as an email?

Thanks for letting us know about it, because mine seem to be taking forever to ripen!

This message was edited Oct 19, 2007 7:25 PM

My Datura pods STILL haven't cracked.

I'm madly bring plants in. Does anyone know if amaryllis can survive the first frost? I'm making a list of what can be left outside for the first frost (cannas, begonia, dahlia, etc.) and what cannot (brugs, callas?). Anyone have a list?

My favorite article on growing amaryllis (from the National Arboretum) suggests bringing them in before "heavy frost." Since I plant them with the top of the bulb exposed, I decided not to take chances... They came in last weekend with the bananas. My cannas are still out there, waiting for their tops to die back.

whoops, meant to link to the article because it's a good one! http://www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/faqs/AmaryllisBloom.html

According to that article, you can leave them out until the first heavy frost, so I take it light frosts are ok. I think next year I'll leave them out longer. (I have already brought them in this year, though we haven't had a frost.)

This message was edited Oct 31, 2007 7:35 PM

Excellent article I notice it says you can plant out in summer sun. I was asking about sun V shade in spring but recently saw a plot at a community garden full of Ams in sun, so that answered my question. Now I will remember because I witnessed it.

I think they do better with more sun. This year, both the banana plants and the mints grew larger in the bed with the amaryllis, and I noticed that many of the bulbs hadn't grown much over the summer. In fact, some may be smaller than they were last year! But with 25 or so amaryllis bulbs waiting to be potted up, I'm sure I'll get some blooms this winter. They're fun, because they're so dramatic! :-)

I just want you all to know that, based on what someone at my HD said, I have planted 2 Amaryllis bulbs in a bed and they made it through the Winter and bloomed this Summer.
This person was telling me how he had this big cluster of Amaryllis bulbs blooming next to his front steps. I HAD TO try it!

The bed faces a sunny/shady South and is near the house foundation, next to my AC unit. No particular protection--but it still made it. One of the 2 had one normal bloom. The other one was not apparent this Summer, but now has a nice cluster of leaves growing.

So you see--they CAN grow outside!!! I was surprised! But I had about 7 pots to bring in each year and I thought I would experiment with 2 of them. So what if they died??? Less to winter over!

I liked the link, Jill. Copied it out.

Gita