Salvaging Plants

October 26th, 2010

   That brush we had with frost over the weekend was a final warning to get your tender-plant-saving done before it’s too late.

Potting dug-up 'Breathless Blush' euphorbia to save for next year.

   I always save some of my favorite annuals, pot specimens and tropicals by moving them inside for winter. I don’t have a greenhouse. And if you don’t either, don’t let that stop you from saving what you can however you can.

   The only really good plant light I’ve got is a single two-bulb plant-light system that’s rigged up to a scrap-wood frame in the basement.

   That’s where I keep my favorite “mother plants.” These are the beauties that cost $5 or more a pot in the spring but that will hang in there for months more in 55-degree temperatures with good light.

   My game plan is to keep them alive and growing at least into late winter, when I take cuttings that will become new baby beauties by May.

   Coleus, perilla, begonias and Persian shield are some of the ones that work best. For species that don’t produce cuttings very well, I’ll let the mother keep going, then cut her back and put the whole plant back outside again in May. I’ve kept the same one of my favorite pot centerpieces – ‘Diamond Frost’ euphorbia – going for years by bringing it in this way.

   Since the plant-light system is only big enough to handle four 14-inch pots, I’ve got to be ruthless about which plants get this prime treatment.

   The rest end up potted beside the sunniest windows. They’re not going to get nearly the light intensity they need to grow well, much less flower. But that’s OK. The idea is just to keep those roots alive. Cut the leggy growth back at winter’s end and get the plants back outside in good light next spring, and most will be looking great again within weeks.

My saved plant lineup for 2011.

   This year my window-side lineup includes two new varieties of saved euphorbias (the white ‘Hip Hop’ and the pink-tinged ‘Breathless Blush’), a copper plant, a black-leafed rex begonia, a red and gold variegated rex begonia, a young night-blooming cereus, a couple of velvety burgundy coleus and a gardenia.

   I also move my houseplants outside for pot use in summer, then bring them back inside for winter. I did that a couple of weeks ago. Houseplants love the heat and humidity of their homeland (most are tropical natives), but if you don’t get them back inside before overnight lows drop into the low 40s, they start to suffer.

   Got any tropical water lilies or other tender water-garden plants? If you want to try saving them, they need to come inside now, too. Some can be potted up to spend winter as indoor houseplants (taro is tops on that list), while others need to be stored in water (one friend says she uses a kiddie pool for this job).

   One other item for the to-do list in the next few weeks is to get anything breakable back inside. I put away my two fountains this weekend along with my rain barrel, the garden torches and several glass and ceramic accessories (a decorative urn, a small statue and some garden art my wife put together out of colorful old dishes).

   Take the hoses in by Thanksgiving. If we get one last dry spell, you might need them to water new plantings before the ground freezes.

   I hate to say the “S” word, but I’m afraid it won’t be long before that gardening-unfriendly stuff starts falling.