Please guys- Help me understand how to overwinter these plants

18 years ago

Hello guys! :)

This will be my first time with some of these and would love some help.

1)Bananas in 1 or 2 gallon containers. Before or after frost do I bring them in? And can I just stick the whole pot in the basement to overwinter?

2)Brugmansias in pots. Do I bring them in, before or after first frost? (for basement overwintering)

3)Mandevilla. Can it go dormant? Storage in basement? Berfore or after first frost do I bring it in?

4)Plumeria. Before or after frost do I bring it in? How do I overwinter it?

5)Hibiscus Tropical. Can I put them in the basement? It does'nt freeze but it darkish. Would they go semi-dormant?

Thanks so much if anybody can help, I was trying to look up tips for these but plowing thru so much info makes my eyes hurt. So thanks if anyone can give me tips?

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

bihai
18 years ago
Let me put it this way.
If you leave your plumeria out in a frost, it will be damaged. Maybe not killed, but as a succulent stemmed tropical tree, it is very susceptable to cold damage and then subsequent rot. SO if you like it, be certain to bring it inside before the frost occurs. I take mine in when the temps start to get into the 40's. You can do 2 things. You can leave it in its pot and set it in a corner...when the light is drastically reduced they will defoliate and try to go dormant. Water ir very very sparingly...maybe a cup or 2 every 2 weeks or less. Just enough to keep the trunks and branches from shrivelling. Or you can unpot it, rinse all the soil off the roots, and store it completely dormant in a cool dry place.

Brugmansia and bananas....again, if you like them, bring them in before frost. Brugmansia is like plumeria, a soft-wood tropical tree. They will defoliate in temperatures between 28/29-32, and regrow leaves if it warms back up, but in a hard frost below the high 20's, damage to the wood will occur. In an ectremely hard frost (here that means 20-26) they may freeze to the ground. Ours are perennial, they come back every spring because our ground never freezes and over a single season reach heights of 12-16 feet. Yours probably won't be perennial. I have never had to winter a brug indoors, but I have heard others say that they will go dormant.

Bananas, again, mine are perennial. Even if theleaves burn off in a frost, the trunks stay up. But I have grown bananas indoors as potted plants and they do fine if they get enough light.

I don;t bother with hibiscus here, they get too many whitefly infestations for me, and I don't grow mandevilla either.

WHatever you bring inside to overwinter, really REALLY reduce your watering. Many people lose plants in the winter that they bring in and then overwater and rot.
riverwoman
18 years ago
Thanks for the info, Bihai. I moved my stuff and tropicals from a house I was selling in Katrina country two weeks before she washed my house away! I'm living near Dallas now, and wondered what to do with my tropicals. I'm wondering if any tropicals will make it through the winter on a very sunny south side of a house? How about under a clear plastic "roof" on my back patio?
Related Discussions
Help! How to Overwinter these Non- Hardy Plants, Tubers, Bulbs?
Q
Comments (4)
I'm not sure how much help I can be, but I'll give it a shot... First of all, there is no one-size-fits-all watering schedule a grower can keep when it comes to containerized plants. Each plant will use water, and water will evaporate, at a different rates... based upon plant type, size, pot size, location, medium used, weather, humidity, etc... So, any potted plant should only be watered when it needs to be watered. I use a combination of my finger/sense of touch, and the wooden skewer method, to determine the moisture content within each pot. Even when soil feels dry to the touch near the surface, there could be plenty of moisture deeper within the pot, hence insertion of a wooden skewer to test for moisture, and a rather dry feeling medium may even contain moisture molecules at a small percentage that we can't feel with our own sense of touch. The Tulips, Lilies, Allium, and Hyacinthoides can be kept potted, and the pots buried up the rim in a garden, then mulched for the winter... as long as they're buried at their recommended depth, those types of bulbs are hardy to northern climes. However, squirrels and other rodents love to feast on them, so once the pots are buried, you may want to lay some screen over them before mulching... then remember to remove it early enough so the new shoots can get through. Some of the other plant types you mention are not hardy to your zone 5, and will require being kept in relative warmth. I don't think covering anything that sits up on a pedestal will do much good, as windchills can be quite devastating to plant roots that don't have the protection of being at ground level or buried, and protected with mulch of some kind. Hopefully, someone with more knowledge of your various plant types will be along to help... I'm in zone 5b, and bring all my tender potted plants indoors for winter, and try to place them where they will get the most light, treating them more as houseplants that are just resting for winter. Anything hardy to my zone either gets planted and mulched, or goes into an unheated, and otherwise unused, garage building once dormant. I group my potted perennials and shrubs together in plastic baby pools inside the garage, and I close up the building until early spring. I will check occasionally to see if the soil is dry, and if so, I will spread a few shovels full of snow over them to simulate nature and its winter moisture source. When dormancy breaks in spring, I begin opening the east facing garage doors to let in light, and as soon as I feel the weather is stable enough, I bring everything back outside for another growing season. I don't know how much I've helped you, but I wish you luck. :-)
...See More
Please help me understand Hydrangeas
Q
Comments (14)
Think of the green shoots that are coming off of the grey wood as the "flower stem" though it may not always produce an actual flower. So in essence, yes your are cutting off the green shoots to the old wood. If you look at the structure of the plant in the winter when there are no leaves, that will help you understand it all better. Spring is the best time to prune for us because if you prune in the fall you are exposing the stems to a possible early frost which will hurt the plant. I'm not sure about leslies advise to prune 1/3 of the wood, and why in the summer. Typically it means that you take out 1/3 of current growth to the ground to thin out the plant. Pruning down into the old wood doesn't necessarily "sprout" new stalks. The new stalks are the "buds" that you see on the grey branches in the early spring that turn into "green branches" and should bloom. But... they don't all always bloom. I can't totally explain why some bloom and some don't but it seems to be a culture thing, i.e. sun exposure, watering, soil, age and health of plant. My bushes always have tons of blooms, but I don't do anything special...just let them be and prune down to the third strongest "bud" on the old branches each spring.
...See More
Help! How to Overwinter these Non- Hardy Plants, Tubers, Bulbs?
Q
Comments (5)
I store tender bulbs in bags of peat and keep them cool, not cold. Tropical and sub tropical plants are stored in a heated greenhouse or grow room with HID and T5 lights. Even though my GH and indoor plants are warm and well lit I significantly reduce the amount they are watered. Dormant plants like brugs, plumerias and adeniums get a small amount of water every 6 weeks or so, if at all.
...See More
Please help me understand about rose gall :disinfecting soil???????
Q
Comments (4)
Perhaps incorrect but here is another. Gall can also enter thru the roots. Even if you never once dug within a roses root zone there will always be the underground insects ie. grubs wireworms among others that feed on roots. Most of us have nerver been so lucky to have placed our roses in the correct spot every time we plant. Sorry bart as that had nothing to do with your question. If we were able to have access to Galtrol we would be able to treat our plants before planting and when moving. Gall is a garden nightmare in a way. I'm not too bright when it comes to things like this but it seems as if the higher prices rise the less people purchase. Drop the prices to something doable and few in the nursery business would wish to deal with gall problems. Just a dumb thought. I did a bit of an experiment here in an area of my garden known to have had gall issues. Many years ago I removed all roses from this spot as several roses had become galled. For years only grew other plants here and they did well. The ground there had been dramatically improved. This is the sunniest spot in my yard and I needed it for roses. Three years ago I took the plunge and planted 7 Flower Carpets to see what would happen. I was not careful with the roses. they all received wounds right below the surface. I dug those out this year. Removed all the soil and carefully examined them. No gall was present. I'm now replanting this area in the coming spring. What did my little experiment tell me? Nothing really but I'm planting there now and hoping for the best.
...See More
bihai
18 years ago
I have had family in Dallas since I was born and lived there for a time in the 60's. It gets a bit too cold for most tropical stuff. Dallas is unlike my present climate here in No FL in that when its cold, it STAYS cold for several days. It really never stays too cold for too many nights in MS or FL. It warms back uo to the 70's a lot in the days, and we have many days of 80's in November. We have been to Dallas visiting relatives and had it be in the low to mid 20's every night for the whole time we were there, 5-7 nights, in December. And the daytime highs are COLD too, 40's and 50's. That kind of prolonged cold really hurts tropicals. I'd try to bring them inside if I were you, somehow.
ohgirl
16 years ago
great advice thanks for me too!!!!!

Please guys- Help me understand how to overwinter these plants

Comments (4)

bihai

riverwoman

Related Discussions

bihai

ohgirl

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US