LITTLE ROCK — By now, many people have turned on their heating unit for the first time, so houseplants need to be inside. If you wait until a killing frost is predicted, your plants will have a tough transition.
Indoors, plants struggle due to low humidity, lower light and a constant temperature. Even if they don’t experience a frost, they have experienced temperatures in the 40s. If they get used to these lower temperatures, moving into a heated house with a constant 70 degrees can be a shock, and they will quickly shed leaves. So bring them in when inside and outside conditions are closer to the same.
If you have tropical flowering plants that you plan to save for next growing season, you have several options. One is to move them indoors along with houseplants, or wait until frost is predicted and store them in your crawl space or garage - someplace where they won’t freeze.
If you choose the garage, the goal is to keep them alive, not growing and blooming.
Move them back outside in the spring when it is warm. Prune them back by half at that time, repot and start watering and fertilizing.
HomeStyle, Pages 39 on 10/23/2010