Thank you stonesriver and everyone else for the kind welcome. Yes, I think I may have been a bit bitten by the "gardening" germ. Granted, I am nowhere close to where most people on this forum probably are. I am mainly a "decorator" who feels that a house without any indoor plants is sad, dry and too much of a sign of our rushed times. So I decided I HAVE TO get some reasonably elegant indoors plants established. The only thing close to caring for a plant I've done before were some geraniums. They did OK, I managed not to kill them and they bloomed quite a bit over the winter even if they did get leggy. Oh, well. Now I took them outside and I decided that they will go in the basemenent for wintering when times comes. I will no longer keep them in the house because they are not really elegant, gracious plants. I like their bright colors outside in the summer but that's that for now. So I decided it was time for something finer and elegant to go with our classic/traditional living room as well as my busy schedule. I also knew this was going to be harder than a geranium which are quite hard to kill anyway. So off I went to Pikes and I grabbed some plants I had heard were not hard to care for and would do well on our Eastern bay window. A Peace Lily, four AV-s and two yellow begonias. (I did kill a begonia last year but later, after more reading, I realized I was making mistakes with it). A real gardener I will never be - not with a full-time academic career and two small children; but By God, these few plants must stay alive, do well, and even bloom nicely - this is all I hope for. I don't plan to do any complicated wick watering (at least it sounds complicated to me) or much propagation or anything - I just want to keep my living room looking as pretty as it is now, with lots of healthy blooms, if this is not too much to ask. Since I've heard so much about how important the soil is, I think I am going to change the soil the plants came in pretty soon; at least for the AV-s, I don't know whether I should do the same thing for the begonias, but probably should. Having a month between waterings sounds like a lot to me. These are small pots (4" I believe) and I think all moisture would evaporate altogether from such a small pot well before the 1 month mark; especially if I change the soil to something more airy. I did fertilize the AV-s when I watered them the first time - with some 5-7 drops of liquid fertilizer from MIracle-Gro, as indicated on the package. I am a super novice so I just did the novice thing. I guess changing the soil will also change the present routine. Some of the flowers on my AV-s are starting to fade now- they are starting to have little burnt patches on the petals, but I assume this is the natural cycle of the flower - as I bought them with quite a few blooms from the nursery and it might just be their time to go. I am just hoping they will continue to bloom for a while. Thank you again for the kind welcome, I wil certainly be around because I have been clearly "bitten". :-)

Tess You have received some good advice above. Let me add my two cents here. I have been where you are now and had to learn the hard way. Avs like to be pot bound and the regular potting soil by itself is too heavy holds water and will kill your plants eventually. Using a soiless mix will help you or adding plenty of perlite to your heavy soil but I would go with the soilless. One thing that happens with the way you are going now is you will either under water or overwater either way your plants will suffer. I seriously suggest you look into and try wick watering. Its the only way to go. Well, ok so that might 3cents worth.

I think your garage is too cold, although you can try covering it with blankets when it gets below freezing. rosecanadian does that going from sheets to comforters as the cold progresses. I'll try to find her procedure as she is in Z3 British Columbia and keeps almost all her roses in pots in the garage! Do you have any sort of protected cool room perhaps that doesn't get too cold that you could bring it into during the frigid spells? I keep mine in an unheated sunroom and they do fine, but they will break dormancy early so I have to watch out for aphids sometimes. You will have to water it about once a month and make sure it is well hydrated before putting it to bed. The problem with indoors is humidity, pests, light and too high/dry temps. I keep my rooted cuttings and many tropicals in a room that's in the 50s in general going lower at night with a florescent light over them from late afternoon til midnight. This is an east facing sunroom also. They do well here as well as the temp variation isn't as great as that of the unheated southern-facing room. I had trouble keeping them in my other rooms even when cool for some reason, probably light.

Just some leaves. The older leaves are still variegated.