i suspect they should stay were they are until they can go back outside in may ...

they probably... need the leaf growth.. to produce energy.. to grow the roots to get fully established..

if you throw them in the dark.. and they lose those leaves.. are you sure they have enough stored energy to releaf again???

i hope you used a good media .. and not soil in the pots...

ken

I would leave them where they are unless they are in the way of something. In the future, you can leave them in the water until spring if you want to.

Well, I was wanting to get these pots out of the way by putting them in the basement, and also slow down their growth without killing them. Soon we will be leaving for a one month vacation. Someone will come to the house to water our over 50 houseplants, and I wanted to reduce the work load a bit by putting these in the basement with the other now dormant bottom halves of these brugmansia. Since the bottom halves are now just straight sticks without any Y 's, I assume the may not bloom this year. So I may rely on the top parts with y's which I had cut off from the others, then rooted and planted, to produce blooms. Its only my second season with these plants ( they grew enormously last season, impossible to move to the basement without major pruning); I am still learning...

Thank you Tiffany ! Good information about these plants growing this tall from the ground and also blooming! I decided to put the larger plant in the basement where it is dark and cooler, and keep the smaller one in the light on the ground floor. If anything goes wrong, I still have the dormant bottom halves of these brugmansia ...

I force a number of different plants into a state of consequential dormancy rather than trying to help them limp through the winter, which has a noteable impact on how enthusiastically the plants greet spring. Brugs, datura, hibiscus, lantana, lavender star flower/ crossberry (Grewia occidentalis), et al, go into a 65-68* corner of the basement where they get little light, and only enough water to keep the grow medium from drying out entirely ...... so a light watering somewhere around once/month. I typically repot and prune back all of these plants annually as it makes a big difference in vitality levels and how well they'll be able to perform during summer and fall.

Al

Al, have you considered grounding the plants and just saving cuttings in the fall? I've been doing that with a growing number of plants. So much easier than tending pots all summer, and repotting.

Indeed, leave them in the water until you want them to grow,you can keep the cuttings a long time like that.when you have put them in soil,it s not a good idea to interrupt the growing process in the spring. Let them grow until they go outside

Al, have you considered grounding the plants and just saving cuttings in the fall? I must have missed your question when it was first posted, Tiffany. I do that sometimes, as with the variegated brug in the foreground below.

This plant got too big to bring in, so I pruned it back hard and started cuttings to give to gardening friends who then had the option of treating them like annuals (letting them freeze), starting their own cuttings, or trying to over-winter them. Our grow season is much shorter than yours, so starting from cuttings every year would mean smaller plants that aren't so eye-catching.

Al