The Gardener’s Rake Weekly Gardening tip, October 13, 2008

It’s time to bring your indoor plants in at night and any plants that you want to over winter.

Indoor plants

If you leave your indoor plants out when the nights get colder, in the low 40’s or lower, they suffer from shock and it takes too much of a toll on the plant to recover. So bring them in after 5pm and if you wish set them back out during the day as long as the temperatures are in the high 50’s.

Geraniums

Many people bring in their geraniums and save them over the winter months. There are two ways to do this. You can bring in pots or pot them up and put them in a cool place and cut back on watering them.

Or you can take the geraniums out of the soil and take off all the soil, them place in a brown paper bag and store until spring. I usually use the brown bag method. I find the plants do better in the spring in my zone 5 area. You will need to bring the plants out in late march and replant them. Cut the plants back and water. Wait until you see new growth and give them a liquid fertilizer. I will often place plastic bags over the plants to give them a greenhouse-growing atmosphere.

I also save mums, begonias, potato plants and tomato plants.

Tags: bringing indoor plants in in the fall, overwintering geraniums, The Gardeners Rake weekly gardening tip