{"id":3203,"date":"2020-10-12T05:31:42","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T13:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3203"},"modified":"2020-10-12T06:05:32","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T14:05:32","slug":"indoor-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/indoor-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Indoor Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"christmas<\/a>Every year I put off the inevitable\u2014bringing houseplants indoors after their long summer vacation outside.\u00a0 I would like to think that my procrastination is motivated by a desire for the plants to soak up sunshine for as long as possible.\u00a0 Really though, I fear that my indoor spaces will be inundated by a high tide of potted plants.\u00a0 It happened last year and my designated plant areas, the sunny dining room window seat and the table in front of the big living room window, looked like mini jungles.\u00a0 Realistically, it is hard to give that many plants the kind of attention they need and deserve through the winter.\u00a0 Losing a few overwintering plants is inevitable, but when spring finally returns, the plant areas should not look like horticultural ICU\u2019s.<\/p>\n

This fall, instead of trying in vain to find enough room and enough supplemental light for an army of geraniums, cannas, tradescantia and assorted tropical beauties, I am going to use overwintering strategies that will reduce work and effort, while preserving plant life.\u00a0 I like to think that a little planning will prevent a lot of desperation.<\/p>\n

My daughter has an ongoing love affair with cannas.\u00a0 Last year I overwintered the containers in the house, watering on a regular schedule and hoping for the best.\u00a0 They survived and bloomed heartily this year.\u00a0 Since no good deed goes unpunished, my daughter invested in more cannas.<\/p>\n

There are many ways to overwinter cannas.\u00a0 You can wait until frost withers the foliage, dig up the bulbs, let them dry a bit and then store them in a cool dry location.\u00a0 At winter\u2019s end, you plant them again and with luck, they will start the growth cycle all over.\u00a0 You can also keep them in their containers, move the containers to a cool, frost-free location and let them go dormant naturally.\u00a0 When the weather warms up in spring, you take them outside, begin watering and feeding, and wait for new growth.<\/p>\n

I am opting for that strategy.\u00a0 I already overwinter my potted roses that way and have succeeded well.\u00a0 The cannas will join them.<\/p>\n

We have about a million geraniums, or so it seems when the time comes to make decisions about them.\u00a0 We could overwinter them all, but I would have to find the money for the immediate installation of a Victorian-type greenhouse to accommodate them.\u00a0 The will to do that might be strong, but the finances are weak.\u00a0 Instead I will make the tough decision to overwinter only the prettiest, most unusual ones and sacrifice the rest.\u00a0 Barring an apocalypse, the garden centers will once again be full of geraniums next year.<\/p>\n

Even the most attractive annuals are by their nature expendable.\u00a0 Some will self-seed and pop up next year.\u00a0 Others will go the way of all things.\u00a0 When I pick up the new geraniums in mid spring, I will also buy more stocks, annual verbena and double impatiens.\u00a0 I may take cuttings from the Swedish ivy and root them.\u00a0 We will see if time permits.<\/p>\n

I grow several tradescantias, including the striped Tradescantia pallida.\u00a0 Since these spiderworts are frequently grown indoors, I\u2019ll trim their long, trailing stems and give them entry to the house.\u00a0 They do well on plant stands that save space and allow for their wandering growth habit.<\/p>\n

Heavy lifting and overwintering is inevitable for some plants that might not survive cool space dormancy.\u00a0 This weekend, when I\u2019m feeling strong, I\u2019ll bring in the oleander, tea tree, and hibiscus.\u00a0 As I lug them in, I will remember to give thanks that the cannas are going into the garage.<\/p>\n

I send\u00a0 several years\u2019 worth of Christmas amaryllis outdoors every year.\u00a0 Instead of going through all the rigmarole involved in forcing holiday bloom by shutting them up in the dark for eight weeks before returning them to light and hydration, I treat them as ordinary houseplants.\u00a0 Consolidated into as few pots as possible, they return to my dining room, where they will be watered and fed.\u00a0 Eventually they will bloom on their own schedule, making for delightful surprises during the dark months.\u00a0\"Fall<\/a><\/p>\n

I would bring in the Christmas cactus, which is several seasons old, but it is already holding court inside.\u00a0 The infamous \u201cMission Impossible squirrel\u201d chewed it almost to the point of no return in July and I brought it inside to save its life.\u00a0 Now it is hale and hearty and I am hoping that it will show its gratitude by popping a few blooms over the winter.<\/p>\n

Some would call all of the above \u201clazy gardening\u201d and they would be right.\u00a0 But I have to gin myself up for an orgy of late fall bulb planting, so I think of it as personal energy conservation.\u00a0 There is more to life than supervising the drying of canna bulbs\u2014especially when I know that I will still be planting daffodils on Thanksgiving Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year I put off the inevitable\u2014bringing houseplants indoors after their long summer vacation outside.\u00a0 I would like to think that my procrastination is motivated by a desire for the plants to soak up sunshine for as long as possible.\u00a0 Really though, I fear that my indoor spaces will be inundated by a high tide … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,5],"tags":[497,2393,2391,492,502,2392,416,415],"class_list":["post-3203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-winter","tag-amaryllis","tag-cannas","tag-dormant-plants","tag-houseplants","tag-indoor-gardening","tag-overwintering-tropicals","tag-spiderwort","tag-tradescantia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3206,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203\/revisions\/3206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}