Last updated on December 4th, 2014
MY HOUSEPLANTS RETURNED TO THE WINDOW GARDEN YESTERDAY, after their sunny summer holiday outdoors. Prior to their coming in, I gave them two “acclimatizing” weeks on the shady patio. You see, if plants are moved too quickly from sun and humidity to diffused light and a dryer atmosphere, they inevitably drop their leaves. And here are some additional things which help them adjust to window life:
Before bringing plants indoors, scrub clay pots with plain steel wool, go over foliage for dead leaves, and prune for shapeliness. Then spray both pot and plant with insecticide (I use House & Garden Raid). If you don’t wish to use insecticide, dislodge pests with a firm blast from the garden hose.
Hopefully, repotting was accomplished before the summer holiday. Plants recover more quickly when they are heading out to ideal conditions than when they are returning to home life. Scraping away the top inch of soil and replacing it with a fresh mixture is a fine substitute for shock-inducing autumn repotting. That was a weird sentence, but I think you get my drift.
The first weeks indoors, provide plants all the fresh air and humidity you can muster. Keep windows open all day and all night (as weather permits), and if your plants rest on pebble-filled trays, as some of mine do, keep the trays filled with water. With such care your potted companions will continue to flourish with nary a complaint.
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Betsy says
I love your window and all of the vines!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Betsy – welcome! Thank you for your kind words.
erin says
thanks for the advice about the home and garden raid…. any tips for winterizing a dying veggie garden? My cherry tomatoes are the last ones standing (falling over).
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
erin – Well, you might boil those cherry tomatoes down, as reader Terry does, and then strain them for juice.
As for winterizing the veggie garden, plan to save your autumn leaves. Once shredded, these leaves make a beneficial covering that turns into rich, nutritious leaf mold by spring. I'll discuss this procedure more in a future post.
Marlene says
I'm in Brooklyn, NY and need to bring my plants in. We had a quick tornado spin through tonight so it's definitely time. I had no idea that the plants needed two “acclimatizing” weeks and have lost a lot of leaves in the past. Thanks for the tip.
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Queen of the Click – welcome. So long as nighttime temperatures are above 58 degrees, you can still condition your plants in a shady spot. Definitely bring them in before the house heat comes on; plants hate a roaring furnace as much as they hate a tornado!
Terry says
I love your window garden! I may have to break my own long-standing status of no house plants and try this in my office windows. I normally put plastic sheeting on my windows for the winter, but maybe I will leave the office open this year. I am afraid of it getting too cold though, I am in Michigan. Even with plastic up, our furnace does not run properly and we don't run it at night and so my office can be as cold as 55 degrees in the morning. Do you think that is too cold? I will have to read up on your past posts about window gardens.
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Terry – Sounds like we live in the same house. But that's precisely why my plants thrive in winter — they LOVE the cold. The flowering kinds in particular — azaleas, bulbs, geraniums, jasmines, primula, thunbergia, etc. — all prefer a drop down to 55 (50, even) at night, and temps which do not exceed 65 during the day. Consequently, your office seems the ideal place for a window garden!
Terry says
Great! I am going to have to try this, I better stock up on fingerless gloves 🙂
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Terry – It will feel like January in your office, but it will look like May!
Tammy says
Kevin, have you found anything particularly helpful for plants brought indoors that end up still having pests on them? I sterilized all pots, used an earth-friendly insecticide, inspected — and this year we're overrun by little black flies. Another treatment of the insecticide yielded no results and I'm stumped. Plus, it's too cold now to bring plants outside for any length of time for a harsher treatment!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Tammy – those black flies are fungus gnats. I had them here once, brought in, I think, with a bag of infested potting soil. The gnats have a life-span of 4 days. They are more annoying than harmful. To eliminate them you have to kill their larvae which feed on decaying matter on the soil surface.
Remove from your potted plants as much top soil as you can, and replace it with a fresh, STERILE mixture that does not contain any pine bark. Then sprinkle Diatomaceous earth on top of the soil. This naturally-occuring, gritty compound will cut up the larvae as it moves in the soil, thus putting an end to the gnat infestation.
BTW, be sure to throw out your old bag of potting mix — it could very well be the source of your gnat problem.
Tammy says
Thanks so much, Kevin. I'm sure you're totally right about the gnats — I noticed they were all crawling around the soil surface and all the infested plants were repotted with a new bag of potting soil from Agway. I've already tossed it and now know what to do next! I so appreciate the generosity of your time and plant smarts.
Carole says
Kevin, great points. I always learn so much from you!
Alice says
Thank you for these suggestions. I always wait too long to bring mine in because I feel sorry about ending their vacation, but I know you're right about letting them acclimate to their new environment before the heat has to go on.
What do you do about tender perennials like hibiscus and mandevilla and fuchsias–try to carry them over till next season or let them go?
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Alice – I overwinter all of my potted tropicals. Hibiscus in particular will continue to flower off and on if it is provided with full winter sun, abundant humidity, and cool temperatures (65 degrees is the absolute maximum).
Alternately, you can take cuttings of hibiscus, mandevilla and fuchsia now, and root them in 4-inch pots of good soil. Set the cuttings in a bright but not sunny window. When new growth appears, move to a window that receives full winter sun.
To boost humidity, set the pots on large, pebble-filled saucers. When plants are watered, excess will drip through the drainage hole into the pebbles. As the water evaporates, it will create a buoyant atmosphere around the plants.
Alice says
Thank you so much, Kevin, for making the time to respond to my question and for your good advice.
Anonymous says
Kevin,
Someone suggested dunking the whole plant in warm water with a little dish liquid and listerine mixed in. Any comments on this method?
Do you have any experience with rooting cuttings of Acalypha wilkesiana/Jacob's coat? I've tried to root some, but they look sad and shriveled. I'm providing enough moisture and sunlight, but this is my first time with this plant. And what about gerbera daisies? There seem to be two schools of thought – one says let it go dormant in garage or basement and another recommends overwinter inside the house. I'd prefer the first method if anyone has success with it in zone 6. Any thoughts?
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Anonymous — I've never tried dunking a whole plant in water/dish soap/listernine. Nor have I tried to overwinter the gerbera daisy.
I have, in the distant past, propagated Acalpha. The cuttings insist on very high humidity. Use 3-inch long softwood cuttings, about 3″ in length, and set them in small pots of sterile, well-draining potting soil. Then cover the pots with clear plastic bags. Gradually remove the bags as growth appears.
Vicki says
I wintered a Gerbera Daisy last year. It sat on my kitchen window ledge which faces west. It did fine. Even bloomed off and on. Will do it with two of them this year.
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Vicki – Thanks for the heads-up on the Gerbera daisy!