Yes, thanks, I think that's correct! The photo was from Wave Hill, in NYC, and you nailed it. Much appreciated!

An old-timer my sis knows up in the mountains is saying according to the animals and trees we're going to see one of the coldest winters we've had in a while. He's got a pretty good record of predicting winters too. I brought in what I could, put some under the house and some in an outbuilding. Something that might be helpful is when people have old well houses and they don't want to go to the expense and trouble of actually heating them so they just keep a light in there. It doesn't give it a lot of pretection, just enough to keep it from freezing hard. I've done that with some plants, including a basjoo banana that we grow in a pot. We put it in the building and hung one of those work lights on it with a 60 watt bulb. The outer leaves froze but it still came back next spring. It has lived thru single digit temps (that one November) using that method. Some people use Christmas lights too. If you don't have any other options it's worth trying. Last year we used some netting around our tropical bed and filled it with leaves. It worked pretty well, but the leaves matted down really bad and that may have caused some things to rot. We've used the straw bales with an old glass door over it with potted gingers and that worked well.

Hi, Maryl, I come over here every now and then because I get so tired of nothing-but-veggie talk. I mean, there is a limit, huh? I grew the Justicia in a pot 2 or 3 years ago. I thought it would be attractive to hummers, but it wasn't......not at all. I grew it in partial shade and the resulting blooms were not as bright as I'm sure they would have been in full sun. If you're not necessarily going for bloom, there are lots of tropicalesque plants with great foliage for partial shade, like Alocasias (Colocasias, too, but they need a lot more water than the Alocasias), Spider Plants (Chlorophytum), Caladiums, Ti plants (Cordyline). Blooming tropicals, which is where it looks like you are headed, include the Dragon Wing Begonias - a lot more flower punch and leaf color than the bedding types, and as with most Begonias, they grow in part shade. I'm attaching a page from Logee's catalog, of various Begonias so you can see that the Wax or Bedding Begonias are not the most attractive Begonias available. There are several "types" such as cane aka fibrous, shrub, rhizomatous, tuberous (don't grow well in the south IMHO, Rex (difficult to grow), thick-stemmed, trailing/scandent, etc. You can find some of them locally in OKC at TLC and Horn's. The attached link is just FYI. Chenille plant, Tibouchina or Glory Bush, Heliotrope (fragrant!), Hibiscus rosa-sinensis varieties, Lipstick plant (Aescynanthus), Pachystachys (Lollipop flower). There are lots of summer bulbs that grow well in pots - inexpensive - like Dahlias, Calla lilies, dwarf glads, asiatic/oriental/orienpet/trumpet lilies, Crocosmia, Agapanthus. Sometimes, at reputable stores, you can purchase a bag of bulbs that flower at different times during the summer so you have something in bloom all the time. Agapanthus will bloom from late summer thru fall. Dahlias bloom all summer and fall. The others have a specific bloom time so you might want to grow several of them together in a pot as suggested. One online source I recommend is Brent & Becky's bulbs. But if you're on a budget, Lowe's or HD or Walmart usually have packages for a low price. I feel the bags to make sure the number of bulbs inside is the number listed on the bag label. Some may rot in transit. I like to get bulbs that are a bit moist but not soaking and you can tell by squeezing the bag. Hope this helps some at least. Susan Here is a link that might be useful: Logee's

I tend to push hardiness zones so it's not just 'tender' perennials I need to worry about in winter but also a number of suspect shrubs. And because I no longer have a lot of gardenable real estate, I grow most of them in containers. On the whole, I tend to let them fare for themselves in winter.......I certainly do not have the ability or space to bring indoors a bunch of containers of woody plants! I do group them together and will sometimes wrap for additional cold protection if very cold weather is predicted but otherwise, they are on their own. I also grow a lot of succulents, most of which are not winter hardy. They go outdoors in spring and come back indoors as houseplants in winter. The only other plant I am considering attempting to overwinter indoors is Cuphea 'Vermillionaire' simply because my hummers adore it and it is now a big, robust, non-stop blooming plant and I'd hate to start over again with a small version next spring. Otherwise, with any other 'tender' or temperennials, if they make it fine - if not, also fine :-) Will try something else next season! ps. Have attempted to overwinter kangaroo paws (Anigozanthos species) indoors several times but with no success. They just dry up and die, even with bright light and regular (but not too frequent) water. Anyone have any luck with overwintering these in colder climates?