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Wintering Plants in Pots - Part 2Read the article this discussion is about
This archived discussion is "read only". » CarolWallace - Coleus Remember that spectacular golden coleus with the very ruffled foliage at the Philadelphia Flower show two years ago - you and I both were taken with it. It was part of the gold andpurple border in the main display? Well, I found one in Massachussetts this summer, and of course I have to try to preserve it - so I am doing what you did. Dug it up and potted it, but I also took off a lot of side shoots and am rooting them. Mine are in my sun room on the coffee table, which probably isn't quite enough light - but it is growing and sending up new shoots. It's probably at least 68 degrees in there, if that helps.-- posted by CarolWallace » CarolWallace - Yeah - it's me again Yes, Brugs root very nicely in water. Easiest thing I ever rooted, as a matter of fact - I wasn't even trying. Roger knocked a few shoots and branches off of ours when we were replanting it this spring, and I just stuck them in a glass as foliage for some cut daffs. Next thing I knew, I had three baby brugs!-- posted by CarolWallace » Cottage_Garden - It's been years since I kept a coleus over winter -- but it seems to me even a west or south window wouldn't be too much light in the winter. Indoor light is so wimpy compared to outdoor shade even. I think anything over 55 or 60 should be fine -- it's the cold nights that weaken them IMHO..-- posted by Cottage_Garden » HollyT - More brugs and amaryllis Marge, re amaryllis, co-worker said his wife gets them to multiply in their pots until they have a cluster of bulbs and send up several flower stems simultaneously. That's my goal, and may be the dream behind the greenhouse: Big pots of amaryllis blooming in January, 3 different kinds of brugs blooming on deck in July, delphs started from seed in Jan and grown on in cool GH so that they are ready to bloom outside while still cool in the spring, a pot of blooming begonia on the table in my office, multi-stemmed white phal orchids on chinese coffee table and dining table, etc, etc, etc.Re amaryllis technique, am pretty sure after reading the RHS article and looking at my 20 holdovers from last spring that 2 months of drying out in the garage isn't doing the bulb a whole lot of good. But on the other hand, it may increase the number that bloom. virtually all of my holdover bulbs bloomed last year, even the small ones. Re brug Charles Grimaldi, have seen it in WFF and Logee's catalogue--it's peachy colored and seems to be a highly regarded variety. It's growing, and you can have cutting next year if you want. Got your leaf workout today? Do you just blow them into wooded area? I bought one of those blowers that vacuums and chops, and blows into a garbage bag or can for mulch. don't mind doing them on our small lot, but have had to depend on kindness of others this year, what with cast & pins. Pins come out Wednesday--whoopee! And last but not least, how come all camellia buds aren't opening in this warm weather? What do they want? Got a new Yuletide for friend in chevy chase, and she says no buds have opened. Cooler weather? rain? -- posted by HollyT » Cottage_Garden - multi-amaryllis I have had multibulbs blooming in the same pot. After the first bloom cycle, I planted the original in a slightly wider pot (the instructions that came with it said to do this, so I did) -- a "hanging basket" size plastic one to be exact. I never repotted it that I remember after that. Years later it had multiple bulbs and simultaneous bloom stems every year. I gave it the enforced rest every winter, tried to be nice to it right after it bloomed, set it outside and more or less watered it every summer....I think I had it for let's see ... almost ten years?-- posted by Cottage_Garden » Marge_Talt - Brugs...How tall? + Coleus Well, Carol, I had figured on five or six feet tall...but, the wide part had slipped my mind! Egads! Guess I will need a big pot for these guys if they ever decide to grow.I'm relieved to find that leaf dropping is their usual passtime...whew! Had me worried there. Hmmm...I know in front of radiators is not good. Is there any way for you to rig a shop light over it/them? I know that's not too decorative and hate to suggest it 'cause your house is so atmospheric and full of lovely goodies and "shop light" doesn't quite have the right personality...but, it is one way of getting light for plants when your windows just won't do. Shop lights are pretty cheap and not too heavy to hang. Maybe you can con Roger into doing that for you since he hasn't gotten that greenhouse done yet. Yes, I do remember that Coleus! So you actually found it? I'd have tried to save that one, too. I don't think it actually gets that close to 70F in the laundry...seldom gets that warm anywhere but the conf. room. Hmmm...maybe I should put mine in there. I didn't because it gets so very bright and didn't think it would want all that light. I like plants that root in water! Delighted to hear brugs do. Now, all I have to do is get mine to actually grow and bloom! -- posted by Marge_Talt » Marge_Talt - Coleus and multi-amarylis Barbara, you really think s or w windows would be OK? If that's the case, I think I should move this Coleus to the conf. room. That room gets so bright it hurts your eyes - and it does stay warmer than the rest of the place.Well, about half my Amarylis are in old hanging basket type pots - and most of those have 4 or more bulbs in them. Many are offsets and not blooming size. I don't repot every year, but it seems that they work their roots up to the surface, or else they just consume the organic material and the soil level sinks...so when it looks like too many roots are on top, then I repot. But, only a few of mine actually have all the bulbs put up flowering stems. I've always put that down to my lack of a decent fertilizer regime. Mine are lucky to get a new dollop of Ozmacote in spring. I am going to try the one pot that is still full of leaves in the gh and let the others have the usual treatment, just to see what happens. -- posted by Marge_Talt » Marge_Talt - More brugs and amaryllis + leaves Holly, that's what I basically do. As I said to Barbara, I don't repot until there are more roots than soil on the top of the pot.Your dream for the g h sounds lovely. Think it's time I started dreaming that way, too...instead of just thinking of the g h as a place to overwinter pots. I was down there tonight, still trying to get some order out of chaos, and found that an impatien had self seeded into somebody else's pot and was blooming! Kinda nice to have flowers in the g h :-) Ah! So Charles Grimaldi is the peachy colored one? YES! I would love a cutting of that one!!! I drooled over the photo, but the name didn't register in my so-called brain. Talk to me about leaf work-out! Spent about 5 straight hours on Sat and another 3 on Sun and another 3 tonight (in the dark) blowing leaves. Seem to have burnt out my leaf blower (electric) in the bargain so ended up raking the last lot off the drive down by the garage! Finally have the drive and parking areas clear - now the paths and decks, etc. are left to do. Well, I blow and pick up and haul to a pile I keep at the edge of the woods. I let them rot down and harvest the leaf mould every year. The windrows get too big to just blow them from the top of the drive down to the pile...we're talking serious leaves here! What I wish for is one of those GardenWay leaf vacs that looks like a lawn mower on steroids. My brother has one and raves about it. It sucks them up, chops them and puts them in a huge sack - also has an extension for getting them out of odd spots. Would much rather do that than just pile them because I could simply put them back on the borders as mulch. My "blower" also vacuums, but talk about s l o w...plus the bag gets to be burdensome when it gets full...so I've given up on that. Delighted to hear the pins come out Wed! That is good news! Sounds painful, but at least those pins aren't in there permanently... Do be careful and not overdo when you finally get to use that wrist again. Camillias are one plant I can't help you with as I've never grown them. For some reason, they just haven't caught my heart strings enough to chance it. They are, I understand, hardy in my area for several years and then, whammo! a cold winter will kill them to the ground. My mom grows them in AL and loves them dearly. Maybe someday they will light my fire :-) -- posted by Marge_Talt » HollyT - 10-year amaryllis Thanks--glad to hear about the multi-stemmed amaryllis.Am trying to get some amaryllis Red Lion to get going and bloom by Dec. 18. Have them in GH on heat mat, but not much action. Any ideas out there? Marge, should we be watering our shrubs, since there has been no rain? I'm doing only bare essentials right now--is this one of them? -- posted by HollyT » Sonni - Back to zone 5b Hi all - just got back from sunny Florida.I had fun in South Beach, sipping peach iced tea while watching live Cuban bands sing and dance ....what a night life over there....My daughter and I flew on Thanksgiving day and after delivering my parents' cat (they left by autotrain 2 weeks before and can't take Ms. Crystal that way); we all went to my cousin's home to have a BIG FEAST. His garden has changed tremendously. He built an arbor out of Plastic pipes and gorgeous vines have wrapped their arms around it.... wherever he plops a coconut, another tree takes root. He has those beautiful vines - yesterday, today and tomorrow -- in their various color stages climbing over fences. The orchids needed to be moved, so they are all hanging in his screened in porch (unbelievable orchids - I've never seen the likes of some of them - large flat coral colored petals that resemble a hydrangea.... gorgeous purples ....). The arbor inspired him to reshape this part of his garden ... and in just a year, those tropical plants have shot up like in a rainforest. I sighed when I remembered that as much as I love tropical plants, I live in New York -- far from the tropics. One afternoon I collected big seeds that landed on the shoreline via the Atlantic Ocean -- they are covered in black skin and I love the way they look. I love the way all seeds look .... Anyway - back to the WINTER. Today in New York the weather jumped up to about 66 degrees! Up until the night before I left for Florida, I was bubble wrapping my pots in the only bubble wrap I could get -- PINK! So when I finished tying them with bakers string, my terrace looked like something out of the 60's - pink bubbles with string... and my pots all look like holiday gifts! Things were going pretty badly.Just when I thought I had enough time to finish wrapping before the cold I thought would hit on Thanksgiving - my cat swallowed about 18 inches of the bakers string - as if it was spaghetti. I was flipping out! I ran after him, but he was swallowing as he was running. I started calling emergency vet lines. Meanwhile, the bubble pack almost flew off my terrace. I was a nervous wreck. I couldn't get everything covered -- but when I returned, I heard it was in the 50's and 60's and everybody was fine except for some heavy wind the day I returned. In any case, I have to see if I think the amount of bubble pack I used is enough - most plants have 2 layers; some have one. It's thin pack... I have to examine everything this weekend when the temperature is supposed to reach 66 again. I was rushing so much, I don't know if I'm satisfied with my "holiday packages". I watered everything before I left and I guess my loving thoughts sustained one and all. I have one little annual flowering now when it never flowered all summer! Now - I read that you rooted Heuchera? How? Please tell all. Mine is still showing it's leaves and I would like to hear about this rooting story. Also, what exactly is a brugs? Any photos? sounds intriguing, especially after seeing so many tropical plants - is this a shade tropical? I have three plants that rooted from tropical bouquets I purchased... and I'm going to rig up a plant light this week to hit that corner with the tropicals in my house. Opinions vary about the kind of winter we will have. First I heard it would be a killer - and now , rumour has it it will be mild - as Marge mentioned. I enjoyed reading all the discussions I missed while gone. Hope you all had a lovely holiday. Regards, Sonni -- posted by Sonni Please follow the guidelines set forth in the Suite101 Posting Etiquette when adding to the discussion. |
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