We plant a light color mandevilla against our barn every year - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/263512/ It does not survive our winters so we have to buy a new one each spring. I am wondering if I can bring this inside? If so, when should I bring it in, before frost or when it isn't growing any more? It still looks so good I'd hate to dig it now. When should this be done, how much should I cut off, and should it grow inside or just go dormant and have minimum water? Thanks.
Overwintering mandevilla - when, how to bring inside?
You can cut it back quite a bit and bring it in. If you keep it in a warm, sunny area, and water sparsley, it will keep growing all winter. I've brought mine in several years in a row. Make sure you give it a good treatment of insecticidal soap before you bring it in so you don't bring in aphids and other critters too.
Good luck!
tamberlin - thanks for your quick reply. Is this prone to aphids inside? We have radiant heat and our house tends to be quite dry. The room where the plant would be is cool and not humidified. Have you brought your plant inside yet??
Hi - we've already had 2 pretty bad frosts. I actually brought mine in before the end of Sept. The temps were going to go down to 38 F or so. One year I had really bad white mealy bugs and after many attempts to get rid of them, I finally had to get rid of most of my plants. I cleaned the whole basement and plant area with bleach before I brought all the plants in. Last year I sprayed the heck out of them and did a soil drench with insecticide and finally made it through most of the winter with only aphids to contend with. My mandevilla tends to get aphids only on the flowers and new growth. I spray one week with soap and the next week with a peroxide/water mix. It helps. I have a lot of plants in my basement!
I would definitely mist the mandevilla occasionally. They don't like to be too wet in the winter, but I find that they dry out really quickly in a dry house.
Deb