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Anyone else bring your plants indoors for winter?

15 years ago

How are they doing? I have twin 20 month old boys so mine palnts had to go in the basement in the storage room with a light fixture with sunlight bulbs. I am really surprised my plants are doing well. I have a 2.5 foot windmill, a dozen seedling windmills, 3 foot Phoenix roebellini, 2 foot Livistona chinensis, 2.5 foot Dioon Palm. And 2 Sago Palms. EVerything is about the same. The Phoenix I thought died in the spring. It sat in my back yard just a stump. New growth start growing on it around September.

Here are some pics. Don't know how to paste them onto the page just yet.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm160/turbodan321/IMG_1223.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm160/turbodan321/IMG_1221.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm160/turbodan321/IMG_1219.jpg

Comments (4)

jimhardy
15 years ago
For a start you can load them on to photobucket from your computer.
xerophyte NYC
15 years ago
Just about any plant, Palms included, that come from areas of seasonal rainfall, are very adaptable to an artificially induced winter dormancy.

Cycads have no problem with being kept in the dark all winter long, as long as it is cool and dry. I keep all of mine in the garage where it is dark and cold.

And some Palms will tolerate it as well. Phoenix (Date Palms) especially do well with this. Dypsis decaryi I would imagine is equally amenable. These Palms from climates where there is extended drought are very well adapted to it. Add Bismarkia to this list. I keep a CIDP (Phoenix canariensis) in a pot, dry and cold, with the leaves wrapped up with rope so they don't sprawl everywhere.

The key is keep the plants cool (40-55F) and relatively dry.

Other Palms can probably take extended chilly weather, but I would imagine they still need some decent light and occasional water but I don't know for sure.

I am experimenting this winter with keeping some tropical Palm species (a few Hyophorbes) in cold and dark. So far they seem OK, having been there since November. We'll see how they have fared in the spring.
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merrybookwyrm, I wait until the last possible moment. We usually have a few nights of 30's then it warms back up.. then some more really chilly nights then it warms up again. I feel when we have several 30's nights in a row its time to drag them in. Sometimes mine get drug in, only to be drug back out for several more days then drug back in again. At the old house it wasn't too hard to do that. I had a nice space along side the driveway I could put them in. At this house I don't have that space. All the plants have to be drug in so we can get the cars in & out the garage so I'll only drag them out on nice days to water and drain before dragging them back in so hubby and I can get in and out of the garage. Most of mine can survive a few nights in the upper 30's. Its the hard freeze that will kill them or damage the limbs. for me its usually around Thanksgiving into early Dec if the weather holds out that long. There have been some Halloweens with freezing rain, and ice storms on Thanksgiving. But we've also had nice Halloweens and Thanksgivings. So its a wait and see kind of thing. My peace lilies are already inside only because I've been too busy to drag them back out yet. They sit on the front porch facing North where its much cooler than if they were on the back porch facing south. :) I think I'll just leave them inside now, except for watering day. (Which reminds me, I need to go bring in the fern) So when you bring the plants in all depends on what's going on and what kind of plant it is that you are bringing in.
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Linda's Garden z6 Utah
15 years ago
Hi, Yes I have a lot of plants indoors for the winter. At least 50 and a few more in the garage. I have a phoenix roebellini in the garage, it is about 5 feet tall in the pot and its multiple stemmed, so it is too big to bring in the house. It seems to be doing fine. Whenever the temps outside are decent, I leave the garage door open for a while so it can get some real sunlight. Also have a meditterean fan palm in the garage. In the south facing living room I have a spindle, bottle and chinese fan palm. All are doing well and are sending up new leaves right now. I also have a mexican fan palm, sago palm and cat palm in the house. Any many other tropical plants too! Can't wait until it gets warm enough to put them back outside! But that will be a while. We just got more snow today.

Linda
greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
15 years ago
Hello Palmandan. I bring my palms in for winter here in the UK. I have none planted in the ground as I prefer to grow them in pots as our area is not particularly suited to all year outdoor palm growing...it suits me and the palms! In the g/h at the moment are my seed sown 4yr old CIDP and a store bought Ch Humilis. (I've run out of house room...according to my d/h!) It is heated to the very minimum but gets a lot of light and they seeem to be coping well as new spears are appearing on both. Also in there are a couple of my smaller 1yr old W Robusta palms I grew from seed. They lost most of their leaves to rot as I think they were cold and too wet so succumbed to botrytis. I'm now keeping all these in the g/h drier than normal and are they're not being fed.
I have a large Phoenix Dactylifera that sits in a sunny area in the house all year round and seems to grow continually. Also in the house are 3 bigger WR's from the same sowing as the g/h ones that I'm giving extra tlc to in the hope that they will make nice plants. They have each grown a new fan since I bought them in from the g/h before Christmas when we had a particularly lengthy cold spell. The 'housebound' palms are watered regularly as we obviously have the c/h on and they're also being fed weakly. All except the PD went outside for our VERY brief summer last year
Gill.

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