Preparing Potted Plants to Come Indoors

This was posted on the Cottage Gardening Forum by garden6 and I thought it worthy to pass along!

Preparing Your Favorite Outdoor Container to Continue Blooming Indoors Throughout the Winter.

I learned this technique while living in Asia several years ago, where garden supplies were rare and insecticidal soap unavailable in my little region. Our master gardener's gardens attested greatly to her skill and knowledge..thus I continue to use many of her gardening tips today.

Before beginning, the container soil should be moist to the touch, not dry nor sopping wet. Add 1 tsp of plain Joy hand dishwashing liquid to the bottom of a large bucket or pail. Then add 1 gallon of very warm water to the bucket - sudsing is a good thing. Bathe the leaves gently on each plant with the soapy solution, paying careful attention to the undersides of each leaf, stems and the base of each plant.

Afterwards, pour about 1 cup of the soapy solution over the soil. Do not rinse. If your container is sun loving, place the pot in the shade to allow the leaves to completely dry before returning the plant to the sun. Repeat the process weekly at least 3-4 weeks. Repeat the process on the day you bring your container indoors.

Inspect for hitchiking frogs or lizards as both have enjoyed a brief stay in our home in the past. This solution is very effective indoors as well, as a spray for soft body pest treatment and maintenance. Plain Joy hand dishwashing liquid, reportedly, contains no phosphates and easily breaks down in the environment. I will use this process this Fall to bring my plants back in for winter color and blooms. This process may sound like a lot of work , but in the midst of a snowstorm or a cold blustery day, nothing sings “Spring is coming!” better than a pot of blooming geraniums, impatiens and begonias, or a colorful pot of coleus.

Oh yes, for shade loving blooms indoors, be sure to place your pot(s) in bright indirect sunlight; for sun loving blooms the brightest sunny window will do. Your container will adjust with some leaf drop, but that is normal. Indoors, the coleus colors will change somewhat, but will return when outdoors again.

Wow - annunals have a life?

Yeah, believe it or not! I only over-winter things like my favorite geraniums, coleus cuttings, pineapple sage cuttings, and heliotrope (I just can't get them started from seed!).

Sue I started heliotrope from seed... it never bloomed and was only a few inches tall by fall... not sure if it's just the one I grew that is slow growing or all of them

my sweet potato vines did well indoors last year

This message was edited Sep 8, 2008 6:11 AM

Oh, yeah - Sweet Potato vines - I'll have to remember to bring mine in this year. I got 'Blackie' this year and was delighted with the blooms - didn't know they flowered!

mine flowered for the first time this year too..... I also had no clue they did that

Pretty, little pinkish flowers. Oh the scent of heliotrope is delightful.

I am about to do the pelargonium cuttings prior to bringing them all in for the winter. I also prune all of my hibiscus and i will harvest all of my basil and sage, but not yet on that. I also repot anything that needs it. some of my plants got blown over in the recent month's windstorms and cracked pots, but not too many. I also will be storing any terra cotta or ceramic pots that are empty in the garage to tide them over the winter. I have acquired a huge pony tail palm which I have to decide where exactly to put for the winter and I am bringing in a Guzmania {bromeliad} that I have been taking care of for over 5 years and has rebloomed every year for me. My boss gave it to me when she redesigned the lobby planter it was in. I am hoping to keep it blooming for a long time to come.
Martha

Sue, great thread, as I always need advice on these matters! I have lovely coleus this year (thanks again, Allison!) which I would like to be able to over-winter.

I don't have much success with overwintering coleus indoors. I forget to water them one time and it's usually fatal. I have a couple out there in pots now but I usually let them go to the frost.
Martha

Whats the difference between Joy and Dawn?

My boss, chief plant lady, has us use Ivory liquid hand soap for washing down plant foliage. She feels this is the gentlest form for sudsy water. I keep a spray bottle of it made up amongst my work tools so I can do the mealies, spider mites and scale in on larger plants. generaly a couple of squirts to a full bottle of water. Suds are good. you can see where you have sprayed as you work your way around the plant.
My son brought in an ant farm once in the pot with his jade plant one year. We keep a closer watch on things now.
martha

Thanks, Martha - that's very helpful!

Not that I'll manage to do any of the things I'm supposed to do, but it is good to know.

I have to bring in my banana plant it is now six feet tall with leaves three feet wide and four feet long man that is going to be a job and a half since it needs a new pot it busted its pot about two months ago and I can not seem to find a bigger one that will be the project this week end first find a pot big enough and then transplant and move will have to call my brother in-law for help since this thing is about two hundred pounds now lol maybe last summer outside since I do not think we will be able to move it again

Hi guys great thread ! and timely too we had a close call for frost last night around here. I have an elephant ears for the first time this year It is huge I can't decide if I should bring it in as a plant ( Where do you put a plant that size!?!?) or dig it and store the tuber if I store the tube should wait till the folage is hit by frost like a dahlia?
laura

I bring the whole plant in, Laura, but mine is in a rolling planter. It doesn't look as good by April as it does now, but that's what I do.

Laura--Chop it down to the top of the "bulb." Flip the pot on it's side, then over, and try to get the soil out...chances are the roots have encircled the whole pot, and it will more than likely be one giant mass of roots. Cut all of the roots away. If you see little "nubs" on the mother "bulb" take a sharp kitchen knife, and slice them off. Let them all sit out side on something that will let them get air top and bottom, like a cooling rack (I bought 2 cheap o cooling racks for this last year.) Store the elephant ears in a shoe box, or a square box of some form or another, if you feel the need to store them in anything, use shredded newspaper or perlite, although I have stored both in a shoe box, milk crate, on a cupboard shelf, and with perlite, vermiculite and shredded newspaper and all have worked out ok. The trick to getting them to be huge, is potting them up really early. I pot them up here about the beginning to middle of March. For me, and this is with the regular old Elephant Ear that you can buy at the box store, these are usually the size of a soft ball, once they are potted up it takes them a few weeks to show any top growth. They typically sent roots down, and I have spotted on a few occasions roots coming out of the bottom of the 1 gallon trade nursery pots, before I have seen any top growth. When you see the first leaf stalk pop up out of the soil, place it near a bright window. I usually place them out in their growing pots on my front porch (front porch is covered) around the end of April, or beginning of May. I usually put them out on the porch when the leaves are pretty large (this might be the 2nd or 3rd leaf depending). I hope that helped. I have tried bringing in the whole plant, but I don't have any windows bright enough, nor space enough for them inside of my home. If you do, and you don't mind a plant that can get that large rather quickly, give it a whirl inside...lol.

1. Dont water it again this year, let it dry out.
2. Get it out of the pot.
3. Wack the leaves off to about 6 inches.
4. Cut all the roots and get the dirt off that you can. Be gental, try not to hit the bulb or pups.
5. Bring it inside at night and put on newspaper. Let it dry.

It is a job and you will have something that looks like this.

1. Make sure it is on newspaper. Let it dry a day or two and bring it back out and get the roots and dirt you can. Try not to remove pups, they stay fine they dont fine.
2. Dont bruise it, be nice. Before you store it get the dirt off. It will have to dry 1 week.
3. Any rotton spots cut them off.

I am done telling you what to do as that is where I am at. This is my 1st year with EE'S. The size of the bulb is not baseball size no more. like 1/2 a football and PUPS! The 6" I left will be hard to dry and pull off. It is much easier to handle. Hope this helps and by no means am I a expert.

Schicken--Don't ya just love them?

I found out, this year, that the other EE's that are out there throw really small pups (Tea Cups and Black Magic) I almost threw them into the composter until I realized I had roots! The other EE's that I have have the huge bulbs and nice sized pups. A few of the newer varieties did this crazy thing, and after discussing this with LariAnn via a few dmails, what I was witnessing was how in some areas EE's can become invasive. They send out these white root looking things, that plunge down into the dirt, and after some time, the swell, form a nub, and then set roots, and voila, new EE! This takes way to much pot space up though :-/

that is so cool! I can't beleive that after gardening for 25-30 years this is the first time I have grown them

laura

Yes I like EE's a lot. They are the most talked about out of all plants, at least at my home. I have another pot to deal with. I will take pics and go through the whole ordeal again. If I am learning, everyone that dont have them, but might, can learn also.

I had pretty good luck with over-wintering one of my coleus indoors last winter. I will certainly be doing it again, as I have so many new coleus plants from that one plant last year.

With coleus i like to make new cuttings, early in September here in Zone 5, then put them in an appropriate size pot and pot up just once, or put a few smaller plants in one large pot.and will overwinter better than the large old plants. They do change color, but having smaller plants you are assured of at least one surviving.Going outdoors, the color comes right back with more/stronger sunshine. I do this with all my different begonias as well. I don't have a lot of sun in the house and having smaller plants works for me.

Only a small piece of this begonia is coming in - actually I am taking them to Fl. + some other cutting and they will continue in my containers there. In spring a reverse the procedure.

i like Palm Olive dish detergent, diluted as said above, to spray outdoors and a weaker solution handy for indoors. For soil in the pots I use diluted "Seven". Helene

So Candyce, what's your secret for coleus? One of my (four) tiny rosy dawn babies is now a happy adult, plus I have lots of buddies from Allison - now what do I do?

Finishing swabbing out the sunroom today. Some things will be migrating back in tonight. The ponytail palm, bird of paradise, crowns of thorns, and the bromeliads and Dave the rabbit's foot fern. {Don't get excited all you DG Daves! He's named for his botanical name, Davallia feejeensis} Hanging baskets next, after trimming. I will have cuttings of ric rac cactus and a large yellow epiphyllum for anyone who is interested. D-mail me and let me know. maybe a half dozen of each. don't actually know what color the ric rac is, as it was not blooming when i bought it. the epi is huge! my various hibiscus are blooming at full tilt right now. Theyre' great!
Gotta get back out there. Laytah!
Martha

Everyone's moved in for the winter.... we had some low temps last week, so in they came!

Oops, sorry the pic is sideways!

Carrie:

I don't have a secret for coleus. I did read an excellent thread on the subject over on the Coleus Forum, and I have pretty much just followed everyone's advice there. I'll see if I can find the exact thread for you.

Here it is: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/596774/
From there, I just went and read a few more threads, and then I was hooked!

1. You remember the blue pot.
2. Roots Have some stinking roots.
3. And more stinking roots.
4. An hour later I had to give up.

ah the wrong one! Geeze I am a blond NINNY

This was not coming inside. If your faint dont look

Oh, wow, Sherrie! Will any of that come back? (I don't know much about EEs.)

Candyce, after I wrote you that, asking for advice, I actually went over to the coleus forum myself and read that exact same thread. And then I ended just taking the whole pot in. (Yes, I'm a sissy.)

Sherrie--it's time for a maddox or a garden spade ;-)

I have two that are like that, I will have to take pics when I get a chance. The two that I've been avoiding were the two Calocasia gigantea...These were the monster sized elephant ears we saw on the Logee's tour last year. I have them planted up in 24" pots...the one...lol...the stalk (of the main plant) is atleast 10" around, possibly more) They still look pretty so I haven't taken them down yet. The others are already resting. I actually used several different implements to separate the pups from the mom...kitchen knife, spade, my hori hori knife, and a tree saw...lol.

I feel your pain!

Wow!! Pictures, Thom?

This weekend is when everything is getting done. The soil delivery is for Saturday morning between 10am and 12noon. So I'll be busy all day Saturday and Sunday. I refuse to work any over time this weekend :-) I will also be taking down any of the pots that I already haven't, and then I have a box or two of things I'm sending out to a fellow DG'er.

The main who owns the soil company had asked, "If it rains do you still want...." I cut him off, and said, "Come heck or highwater deliver the flipping soil...lol." Which he started laughing. This is the same place that I've waited for over a month for.

10yds of soil. A whole lot of DL's. A few hosta...just a few of them. And an unknown amount of other things...finally! I can't wait to get it done.

Bring on the Motrin 800's :-)

Do your streches and get out the epsom salt!

Thom:

You are so brave to attempt to do all of that this week end! It won't be me out it the rain and the wind, for sure! I take chill way too easily. And then I get sick, and that just won't do at all.

Keep lots of warm soup on hand along with that Motrin.

I had to stop watering the EE and it was still neat looking. It is getting below 50 degrees here at night so it is time for it to go to bed for the winter :-( ACK

I was gonna ask yesterday why cant you get most of the roots off and then stick it in a bucket of water to loosen the dirt? Because it makes it wet?

OK kitchen knife, hand saw, and if needed a hatchet.