WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Bringing plants indoors

October 13, 2011

Now is the time to be thinking about bringing our potted plants indoors. You should transition them. Just like you harden them off to put them out in spring, you have to harden them off to bring them back in, too. The first thing you want to do is take your potted plants that you are going to be saving indoors, and put them in a shady spot outdoors. Do that for a week or two until they get used to the low light levels.

Also, be selective about which ones you are bringing in. So for example, if you have a 'Munstead' lavender variety, which is a really hardy variety, you can bury the pot and all in the soil and it will really be okay through winter. To insure it's safe, put some mulch on it around Thanksgiving time. But, if it's not one of those hardy varieties, you should bring it indoors as a house plant.

Rosemary, for example, you have to bring indoors. The key to rosemary surviving indoors is to put it in a window with bright light. As much light as possible. even consider putting a grow light over it! Make sure the soil is moist, but not wet. You don't want to dry it out, but you don't want to get it soggy wet either.

Everyone likes to keep their favorite geranium indoors, too. One of the easiest ways to do that is to take cuttings. Don't try to take a big plant inside if you don't have the room. They get really leggy and sprawling by spring. The easiest thing to do is to take a cuttings from it. Just snip off a six-inch long section, pick off some of the bottom leaves, dip it into a rooting hormone powder, put it in a pot with some moisten potting soil, and it will root and you'll have a nice little plant indoors that will be much easier to keep through the winter.   

By Charlie Nardozzi