Maureen,....are you new to plants/tropicals??
What type of light does your basement get?
I've over 400 tropicals/succulents/cactus, and many go out for summer..
The secret is, before bringing in, hose off thoroughly..I'll admit, sometimes a spider or earwing, (yuck) will shadow my plant, but I rid them and fast..
What type of bugs are you worried about lugging indoors?
There's thousands of plants to choose from...it depends on light, temps, etc to keep them alive..Toni

HI HOpefulauthor. I am net to tropicals. I've been growing plants for about 1-2 years. I'm not worried about an earwig or a spider. I've heard that white flys can infest some of the plants that are brought in for the winter. have you ever heard of that?

My basement gets very very little light. It has those small basement windowns that are about 8" X 18 ". It is very dark in their. And I don't have any grow lights.

Do you have any suggestions for me? I appreciate your advice and input.

Maureen

How about gingers like hedychiums? I think they will go dormant for you...and they smell so pretty! They seem to be fairly tolerant of abuse.

Hi Maureen...Oh yes, I battled w/white fly two winters ago..I'm sure they arrived w/a new plant that was purchased.
Actually, I find plants suddenly attacked by insects are due to dry air, no circulation..

If you're trying to grow tropicals in a low light situation like you've described, it'll be very very difficult..there's very few plants that will live in those conditions..You might get by w/a Pothos, or heart-shaped Philo, but all plants, other than mushrooms, (S) need light to live.
Can you keep plants in the main part of your house? Is the basement the only option? Plants do so much to brighten up cold, grey winter days, clean air, and are just beautiful..I grow everything from citrus, to hibiscus, to gingers, among easier plants like dracaenas and ficus.
So, if possible, decorate your home w/greenery, and in mid-winter, smell flowers from jasmine and even citrus. Toni

Heathen - thank for the info. I am now the proud mother of a ginger hedychium 'tara'. (thanks to you :-) It's planted in a container in my back yard. It's getting full sun - I hope that's ok. I can't seem to find any "faq" on the ginger forum.

Hopefulauthor - thanks for this valuable info. I've decided that my newly acquired tropicals are coming in to live with me and my son this winter. I'm going to keep them in my house with us. Come closer to when it gets cold I'll post about what exactly I have to do to keep them healthy and whitefly/mite free.

Most hedychiums are root hardy in zone 7. You might experiment by planting a hedychium in your yard in a protected locale, and keeping one in a pot as a back up.
Other tropical plants that are known to be root hardy in zone 7 are colocasia escuelenta, musa basjoo (Japanese fiber banana), musa sikkimensis (another banana variety), probably musella lasioscarpa (Chinese Yellow Banana or Yellow Lotus banana). Zingiber zerumbet (red pinecone ginger) is probably hardy for you as well. You could probably do a brugmansia in a container. Plumeria in containers will do for you, you can just let them go dormant in winter and haul them back out in spring...they will do okay dormant in your dark basement unless you have something like rats that might eat them.

Happy to hear that you are interested in tropicals (they are my favorite plants). Here are some of my favorites, and all of these can be stored dormant in their pots in the garage: bananas, gingers (some), angel's trumpet (brugmansia), passionflower vine, bougainvillea, calla lillies, hibiscus, purple fountain grass, new zealand flax, plumeria, justicia (shrimp plant, brazilian plume flower), and many more.

If you have room in your house to keep some plants growing, try acalypha (chenille plant), cordyline, cycad (sago palm), ficus, gardenia, palms, and evergreen gingers.

Good luck!

Sarah =)

Bihai - thank you for the info on gingers. I might just plant my "tara" in the garden and see how it does.
I do have brugs that I'm just starting with. I wasn't sure if I should keep them in my house, or let them go dormant in the basement. And no there aren't any rats (and I better not ever get any down there!!). I don't know anything about plumeria. But I will be looking it up.

Surfgirl21 - thank for your info. I'm really excited about growing tropicals and you guys are getting me more psyched! I'm going to be looking up some of these plants that you mention and see which ones I find interesting.

I just ordered a catalog from Logee's greenhouse - I love perusing catalogs and don't have any tropical catalogs. If anyone has any other suggestions for good companies with catalogs for tropicals please let me know.

Thanks
Maureen

I mention the rats because I used to live in a 3 story house in an old neighborhood...the 3rd story was a completely floored and partially finished attic. It had windows on the East and West side that let in enough light to put plants in front of them,and was always pretty warm from the house heat in the lower floors in winter. I decided one winter to put some of my plants up there to over winter in front of the windows...plumeria, some pachypodium...we had rats and they ATE my plants! I couldn't believe it!

Acalypha (the Chenille plant type...there are MANY types of Acalypha) is hardy in ZOne 7. It will die back in winter but come back as a perennial. This little gem of a fact was discovered by Tony Avent at Plant Delights in zone 7 in North Carolina. As he said..."Who knew?"

Maureen, I used to be a regular customer of Logees, but have since stopped..You will not get a plant that looks like those in the catalog.
The last straw was when I ordered a variegated lemon and they sent me a 2" seedling..
Also, they used to ship plants in 4" pots at 'x' price, and now they've lowered it to 2 1/4" pots and increased prices. Plus shipping is sky-high.
There's a great number of places to shop online, and if you need any sites, I'll be glad to help out. I only mention places I've ordered from..
BTW, though brugmansia is a nice plant, it's toxic, soif you kids/pets be careful ..Toni