I had a number of free Niobe that I received as bonuses from wayside gardens.
They came this spring, and due to a basement remodel, I did not get them planted.
Because they were in such tiny pots, I knew that they would not survive my zone 4 winter without help.
I brought them inside, and now they are happily growing. This is a problem, since it is FALL!
I will be repotting them in 1 or 2 gallon pots, but what do I do about this growth?
Should I let them grow until January or February so that they have a chance to reestablish in the larger pots
and transfer them to my cool shed (insulated and kept at 35 degrees) to take a nap until May when I can safely plant them out?
or should I keep them inside and just plant them out when it is warm enough? They have a nice southern exposure window that gets little full sun due to the shading effect of a large pine tree in front of the picture window, so they won't cook.
They are pruning group 2, so they bloom on both old and new wood, but my understanding is that they bloom best on the old wood, so I'd like to have the wood harden off and go dormant for at least a few months to encourage a good late spring bloom.
Niobe brought indoors is growing, What do I do now?
i wouldn't put them outside this late in the year. you can pot them up and put them in the garage or similar if there is even a little light, watering occaisonally over the winter. let them go dormant. in the spring move the pot outdoors. when the plant emerges, pinch it back until you see several shoots vs just one. after it is warm and you have several shoots from the root mass, plant outside following general instructions for clems.
niobe is a beautiful clem with blooms bigger each year. mine like to die back after a while and i pune them down and if this is done early enough in the season, i get a nice re growth and second flush of small blooms. they can bloom late into the chilly fall too if they feel like it.
had a thought today. i was looking at the koi gardens site. i am not familiar with koi gardens and have not shopped there, but on the site they are talking about shipping and planting clems in the dormant season. maybe you can contact them and see if there is a good success with planting clems outside when the root mass is totally dormant. i feel in my climate it would be hard to get the plant planted properly and watered-in adequately to eliminate pockets of air in the ground around the clem. however, based on the koi site, maybe there is success with this. just thought i would throw it out there as a resource in the event you wanted to consider planting it in full dormancy.