Overwintering these plants

Tropical Hibiscus, Shrimp Plant, Mandevilla, Mexican Flame bush, Star Jasmine...

These are four I definitely want to SAVE

All are planted in the ground except the mandevilla and mexican flame bush they are already in pots.

Can I place them in the garage with no light and minimal water? Or will I have to provide artificial lights?

Hmm, I was pretty much under the impression that even plants indigenous to tropical and southern climes need a dormancy period of some sort. It may not be the type that you and I would normally associate with dormancy but yet still it is a type of dormancy. I would be of the opinion that most of the plants you listed above would need light in the garage. You might want to consider duplicating what they would have normally received and this process is called photoperiod reduction. During peak summer growth these types of plants need anywhere from 10-16 hours a day. Dormancy is triggered, along with cooling temperatures, by a reduction in the photoperiod to about 10 hours. I do not own any of these plants but I have friends who do and they lost a lot of plants when they brought them in and didn't provide light and this was what I Iearned when I wanted to bring in a few aquatic plants of my own to avoid having to reorder them the following year to add to a pond for aesthetics. It gets real old having to pay to replace exotic plants that should by all rights be able to be overwintered in a basement or garage. Reverse the photoperiod process by gradually increasing the amount of light they receive before you get ready to put them back outside again next year.

I can only speak to the mandevilla from personal experience. I dug and potted mine, but didn't cut it back, and put it in the dark basement, cool not freezing. Watered once a month. It had lots of new baby growth in the spring all the way up the vines when I planted it back out, but they all died. Then, after cutting it back, it thrived.

I also overwintered some lantana and tried some lemon verbena but that one didn't make it.

I could have sworn I posted a reply hear last night but it seems to have disappeared.

thanks for the detailed reply equilibrium.

I'll be making one of those pvc plant stands this weekend. Gotta get these plants inside ;)

Lauren, I guess our posts crossed, LOL. But after reading yours, I now remember I had a full-light door in the basement and the mandevilla was there, so it did get some light.

I dunno Darius... I was sort of liking your method much better! Rats... shame you had a full-light door down there. I was sort of thinking there was hope of getting by with out an auxilliary light source. But... looks like she can skip a timer and wing it.

Lauren, the full-light door didn't get that much light, LOL, faced north, under an overhang!