Overwintering plants

[booger]

What plants do you bring inside for the winter? What plants to you leave outside to overwinter and what, if anything, do you do to help them make it through?

(Thought it would be interesting to see what folks do in different locations.)

 

[connie]

We are in a fairly mild climate, but do get cold/freezing weather in winter. I bring in my asparagus ferns (though I do leave some in the beds and they do fine), my bouganvilla, cactus, wandering jew, and geraniums. I have a south facing dining room window and also one in the garage with a shelf and my storeroom has a small south window and we put an old door with glass panes on also, so it gets lots of light.

I hope to get some lettuce in the ground this week if it dries out at all. We have had our annual rainfall a couple of times over this month. Very strange, but nice. If I get the lettuce up, I can cover it with bubble wrap and harvest well into the winter months. Our first freeze used to be around halloween, but the last couple of years has been around Christmas.

 

[blue gecko]

Anything that is hardy but still in pots (its been too dry to plant) I've been 'heeling in' in a bed that I recently ammended with peat and alfalfa pellets. Maybe later when we get rain I'll be able to put them in the ground. Everything else goes inside...somewhere...but mostly in the jungle I mean the solarium...including a couple of tree frogs...oops! I put the more cold hardy things i.e. ferns, cactus close to the window and work my way in with citrus and begonias. The Bouganvillas go in the west windows of my bathroom. I'm trying to stretch the season with some of my herbs by placing them on the south side of the house near a stone wall...sure would like to get some stevia seeds. Those plants are sitting on a little nursery wagon that I can pull inside at night. Today I'll finalize anything left outside and try to button things up. We're building a small greenhouse under a south porch and once that is done I'll move some potted azaelias into it and depending on its night-time temps I may be able to move some of the cold tolerant plants out of the solarium and make some room. Everything else outside gets mulched. I did move some bog/water plants into the solarium and well if they make it they make it, if not then next year is another year. Oh, I sprayed everything with Volck oil spray before bringing it inside. All I need is to overwinter too many bugs! BG

 

[Midnight_Wolf]

I dry out my glad bulbs and store in an onion bag in peat moss. I bring in my begonias and leave them in their pots until they sprout again in the spring. I then replant them in fresh soil. I have yet to dig up my dahlias and dry and store the tubers in peat moss. I cover the roses with about 12 inches of soil and cover that with leaves. Also do the same to the rhodies. The snaps, petunias, sweet williams and pansies I let go to seed. They always come back every spring. Not always where I want them to, but they do come back.