Yes, its interesting to see how our plants change with the seasons. It’s still quite warm here, but shorter daylight and cooler nights are sending a message. I‘m tricking a few by bringing them inside.

Have a good rest, pachy….

Still 70's here but still everything is starting to go to sleep too. I hope my figs hang on and ripen with the warm sun against my house)

I wish these cooler nights and shorter days would send a message for my Hoya to bloom. Ugh

I can't believe I hauled most of them inside already! They could have enjoyed yet another week or two outside. Now I've got to figure out how to arrange everything so I can walk in the house, and worse yet, how to water everything. With so many different varieties of plants, and each on it's own schedule, it really becomes a chore over wintering them. It's so easy when they're outside. I have an australis which was hung under a tree. I did nothing with it all summer. If it rained it got drenched. If there was a drought it got thirsty. It grew like a weed! I bring it inside and wham! Leaf drop! Damn this is tough, and getting tougher every year (or I'm getting older every year).

How do all of you manage your watering schedules? I'm curious how those of you with plant counts in the 100s manage.

Stay well all and let's keep seeing those pictures - it giver us all something to look forward to.

Later....

Bill, I keep an index card file on my plants where I write down date watered, date fed, and any pesticides used. That way I have a rough idea of when to expect I'll have to water again. Plants in my greenhouse get watered with a hose, plants in the house get watered in our kitchen sink. It does sometimes seem like there's always a plant, or two... or ten in the kitchen sink, lol.

Fortunately, plants will need to be watered much less often in the winter. We're not quite there yet, though. Guess I should get back to watering the rest of my Euphorbias :-)

My mother always say's there is no such thing as a clean house or floor as long as we have plants. I think I drop one just about every week. I lift up the white berber carpet and exposed are the wood floors so I can sweep, keep that carpet clean, and mop as often as I want.lol

I try to keep them all in an area where if water fell on the floor, no [problem.

All my hanging ones in my room have saucers hanging pots and the other I sit over totes on a screen type ceiling tile and water freely. This way water can provide humidity and I don't have to worry about getting water anywhere.

The humidifier is on and so are the fans.

Dam, it takes a lot of work to keep them as happy as outside and still a few get leaf drop or a few yellow leaves,

What are we thinking? Doing?

Oh, and did I tell you the lights are already on?

I need more natural light .Ha

Mike

I hear you Mike. I have some under lights too. The gloomies are starting and the last week has been nothing but dreary. Some are very close to my 35w fiet lights since the shelves are so close together. If they start to redden up, I'll have to move the lights higher. Every year it's something new.

I like your idea of the screen ceiling tile over a tote. I may use that idea myself. My big problem are the hanging baskets. They don't have saucer bottoms and I don't have a place to hang them, so they'll need to be placed on a shelf, but that's the best I can do for them. They'll just need to adjust.

Yeah, we sure do a lot for our plants, but they give back tenfold.

One more week and everything goes in under lights for me. Fall has gone far too quickly!

I still have my three Citrus, Pseudobombax, and Aloe polyphylla seedlings outside. I'm keeping an eye on night time temp forecasts. Fall didn't really exist this year for most of my plants, since I moved them in early (due to hurricane remnants bringing too much rain) and never moved them out again. A lot of Euphorbias, Pachypodiums,Dorstenias, Cyphostemma are starting to go dormant, but most Hoyas are still happily growing away. Small Cactus, Asclepiad and Pachypodium seedlings are under lights.

My husband just ordered some lights for my shelves for my girls for the winter. Many of mine are starting to go to sleep for winter now. Thinking of getting a grow tent for all my succulents and cacti in the winter haha anyone else have a grow tent for theirs? I live in very cold climates for the winter so none of mine can stay stay except for my hens and chicks and my prickly pear cactus

Totally upside down season for me, hopefully a one off... my E horizonthalionus just started blooming for the first time this season and my Euphorbia poisonii is finally coming out of dormancy! Summer weather (above 70!) really started a couple weeks ago only and Fall temps are coming up soon. On the bright side, I don't have to worry about temp below 40 so no need for indoor growing with lights. Just finishing a new 16X8 foot structure for year round shelter before the first rain of the season. Never a dull moment :)

Wendy, how much light are your Hoya getting? All natural? Or some help from extra?

Did any of them react when you brought them inside? Like yellow leaves? Dropping leaves?

Thank you)

My Hoyas are in my sunroom which has a south (a bit south east) and a north facing slider and a bank of tall windows facing west (maybe a bit NW). It also has a couple of sky lights, so the room gets lots of natural light. I don't give them any supplemental light.

Mine didn't react at all to being brought in, no yellow or dropped leaves, just kept growing merrily along. I think it's because I brought them in before the nights cooled down much so they weren't shocked at all by the change.

Mike, my Australis dropped several leaves. They quickly turned yellow and rather than leave them, I plucked them off myself. I still have several to bring in as I can only do a few a day because I get tired quickly. Fortunately it's warm still and I've got time. (Buddha said "the problem is, we think we have time".). He was a wise man, except he didn't have 100s of plants to take care of. Had he have, I'm sure he would have had a short temper and some choice words at times.

I expect several others to drop leaves too, at least until they get acclimated. I have some under lights while others get whatever sunlight makes it inside. The windows face south east. I'll post a Pic of the room tomorrow if the sun is out.

Mike - here's a picture of the plant room this morning. I still have about 30+ plants to bring in so it's getting to be difficult to find room. I am letting the Bird of Paradise, the Monstera and a huge diffenbachia, as well as some smaller philodendrons face expiration in the cold. I also have several bromeliads which I have no room for either. It's a shame, but everything has outgrown their location. I think next year I will concentrate on smaller plants, at least those which don't grow so quickly they outgrow their welcome in a year or two.

Enjoy....

Bill, that's great sunroom. Shame you have no room for BOP, Monstera and more - that is main reason I have mostly succulents - they are, overall, bit smaller. I have left one brugmansia otside last year to expire...I got few hoyas this year, but all are quite small yet. And I got some 'strings' (Ceropegias), they are too long now! They all bloomed & have seed pods now. The variegated is a slow grower & still short.

Sld, you have great variety of plants. Many I would like, lol. But have to hold back...anyways, many are more difficult to get so that helps!

Rina, it breaks my heart to sacrifice my plants to the Cold God, but they're so big I can't even give them away! In my next life I'm going to live in a tropical climate, have a huge piece of property and grow tropicals all over. It'll be a true paradise.

I've taken multiple cuttings from the ones I can't bring in, but the bod is just too tall and doesn't lend itself to cuttings. Wish it did, but it's a white bod which grow much taller then the orange variety.

I'm going to miss summfer fall is here a d it's cold glad my tortoise is indoors

Chris,. Tortoise as in turtle or as in string of turtles plant. If the former, you have to tell us about it!