Sue, thanks for article link. I just looked at glads I lifted and they don't have second corm under old one. They have plenty of little bulbels. Assume I leave the roots on but just clean off dirt? Never dug them up for storage before but they were in container that I needed it for planting Spring blooming bulbs...LOL. I have another batch of fluttery white with burgundy centers (Acidanthera)whose foliage were strangled by a wandering Morning Glory on steroids all summer but survived like troopers. When I dug them they also had tons of little bulbels around original corm but no second corm. What gives with my bulbs...LOL. I know I can buy more next year but I get idiotically attached to my plants once they've bloomed. Too painful to toss them. I've got a laundry basket full of Daffodil bulbs I dug up in Spring because I needed to rearrange them after planting perennials and annuals. Just couldn't toss them. They've been sitting all summer/early fall in that laundry basket lined with punctured newspaper in potting soil. When I took off overturned laundry basket I had on them to keep out excessive moisture I found a mass of new foliage peeking out from the potting soil. It looks like a little sea of Daffodils just waiting to burst into bloom next Spring! Thinking of having someone just hold one side, lift the entire mass and plant them in pile of organic top soil I have and then I can divide them carefully next year. (yeah, right) If I slice into that mass now it's likely I'll "slice and dice" the way I've done with Daffs in ground when planting new tulips last month. Tulips in amended clay from last year had disintegrated so glad I bought new ones just in case that was what I found when I lifted their bulb cages. Tulips are the only bulbs I'd be truly upset about moles, voles or some other creature eating. I'm wondering how many people I can scare the pants off of or really perplex by storing these glad corms/bulbs in pantyhose hanging from hooks with gardening tools along inside of garage...LOL. Love gladiolus...they're such a pretty piece of the season's succession of blooming beauties.

I have no experience with it, but it seems like you could treat it like most any other herb. Take care not to overwater and don't let it dry out between waterings, is what I'm hearing from the searching I just did. I'd just google "patchouli as houseplant" (ignoring results from ehow.com) if you haven't yet.

Please don't try to compensate by leaving water sitting in drip saucers, in case that wrong thought creeps into the mix. Those few 3-4 days' watering plants, maybe those should go to a relatives' house? That sounds like a lot of watering for winter time. My plants have gone from getting a drink every few days while outside to some taking 3 weeks to dry in the house. If they really are dry in that short time, I would wonder if they're getting fully saturated when watered, or if the root ball has become hardened, hydrophobic (where water runs off but doesn't soak in?) I'm also concerned there might be very little soil and mostly roots in these pots. Probably not something you'd want to address right this minute, I know I'd be too busy, but mentioning it to consider, and in case you don't know that this could also plants to dry very quickly. If there's any of that, it's something you'd want to correct with a root trim and repot when practical (which isn't when you won't be there for 2 weeks.) You could get some of those gel balls, get them fully saturated, then put a layer or little pile of them on the soil surface of the quickest-drying plants. I say the balls instead of the broken crystal kind since the balls would be so much easier to retrieve later. (A coffee filter, piece of paper towel, or some kind of little mesh bag could also help with removing them from the pot later, anything permeable.) That said, I would give them a good drink, turn the heat down to about 55-60 & not worry about it. (I would pick each one up after watering if possible, to make sure it's gotten heavy, fully saturated/moisture absorbed evenly throughout root ball.) That's what I've always done (and it's that cool in here a lot of mornings during the winter while we're here anyway since we don't run the central heat. 64 in here at the moment, after frost outside last night.) As temps go down, so does moisture usage. The shorter days of winter also cause most plants to grow less quickly and use less water because of that as well. Plants aren't usually as thirsty as we think they are. I would also be very suspicious of the moisture meter. I'm sure you'll get some info about wicking too. You might end up doing a combination of things, depending, as said, on what these plants are. I'm curious too. Knowing that could help folks give you more specific advice.

VJ, Here's what works for me. We are essentially growing roses under identical conditions. Get paper leaf bags at Home Depot or Lowe's. They come 5 bags to a bundle, 30 gallon capacity each bag, and a bundle of 5 is $2.12 at Lowe's here, cheap! Each bag is 36" tall and, when open is 18" in diameter. From each bag you can get 3 winteization collars. Measure down every 12", and cut across the bag. Just cut the bottom off of the bag. Each bundle makes 15 collars. Although the bags are paper, they are double thick and will easily last all winter. The 18" diameter of the collar can be a bit wide, so to make a less wide collar fold over the side. My average size hybrid tea collar is 12" high and 14" in diameter. To get this size fold over a collar 7" , crease it, and staple the folded part in several places. The staples will hold all winter long. The collar will now be 14" in diameter. That diameter is usually sufficient. Huge, mature hybrid teas that need winterization may need the original 18" unaltered collar size. Put the collars on your roses after a few light frosts. 17°F. or lower kills most hybrid tea canes. I usually winterize my roses in November, before Thanksgiving. Just watch your weather pattern every fall. Early frosts mean winterize sooner. Do not winterize too early, let the roses get some light frosts. The best winterization material I have found is fine pine bark mulch, but not too fine. Postage stamp sized to Wheat Thins or Cheez•Its sized pine bark mulch is the best size that I have found. Pine bark mulch does not get soggy. Soggy mulch is the kiss of death, and is worse than no mulch at all. Soggy mulch rots the canes. Soggy mulch to avoid: garden soil (especially clay type soil), hardwood mulch, sawdust, vemiculite, most leaves (even oak leaves), grass clippings, manure, compost, straw, i.e. anything that holds water when wet will induce cane rot. Try hard not to prune any canes at the season's end. Let them be, all the way to their tips. Gather the canes together and tie them with soft ripped rag strips if you cannot easily get a collar on a rose. Those tips are your roses' thermometers that report to the bush the weather conditions. Cut them off, and the bush can make premature dormancy breaks, much to the bush's detriment. Place your mulch into the collar slowly, wiggling the collar so the mulch settles in properly. Fill up to the top. You will use an amazing amount of pine bark mulch. This same winterization mulch will be your rose bed covering mulch next year. Next spring in mid-March just wiggle off the collars only. Leave the mulch in place. it will spill away a bit, but now looks like a beaver lodge. Over the next couple weeks, slowly, every few days, tease the mulch away from the crown of the rose. A little more every time. Watch the weather carefully. Spring frosts reported? Hold off removing more mulch for a while. Soon all the mulch will be spread evenly throughout the bed, dressing it up beautifully. When you get closer to the rose's center/crown, be careful removing the mulch so that you do not break emerging shoots. A gentle water spray will help move the mulch away easier when close in to the crown. You can prune your roses just after the forsythia and large daffodils have reached their peak of bloom. What to do if after the mulch is removed and there is a late spring, killing frost? Put 5 gallon buckets over the big roses, over night or as long as the temp. Is 32° F. or lower. Use 2 gallon buckets, or bottom cut out gallon bottles: milk, iced tea, distilled water, etc., over the smaller roses. Remove all those covers as soon as possible when the frost is over, especially if the sun is shining, or the new shoots can cook! Moses