Bringing in the Houseplants

The days are getting cooler, some nights are downright chilly, and the kids are getting back to school. These are all signs that summer is coming to a close, and it’s time to prepare all of our houseplants for the end of their summer vacation outdoors where they’ve been luxuriously soaking up the warm temperatures, summer humidity and perfect light conditions.

Preparing houseplants to come back into their winter quarters is not just a matter of rushing outside one evening when the temperature takes a precipitous nose dive down towards freezing, although I’ll admit to being caught out that way in some years. It’s far better for the plants if the transition from near-perfect conditions outdoors to the less-than-perfect indoors occurs more gradually. Try to get them inside well before the heat has to be turned on. That way they’ll get a chance to adjust to lower light conditions before they have to battle with the desert-dry atmosphere of a heated home.

Before bringing them in, though, they need to be thoroughly cleaned up by removing any dead or damaged leaves. Some plants may need to be drastically pruned back after growing outdoors all summer just to fit through the door! While spring is the best time for repotting, if there’s a plant that has grown so much over the summer that it will be unhappy all winter in its current pot, life will be easier for you both if you repot it now.

Once everyone has been spruced up, it’s time for their baths. Any insects hiding in cracks and crevices and not removed now will explode into huge populations over the winter. It’s a lot easier to treat your plants now to a nice soapy bath out in the yard on a warm day than to wrestle with them in the bathtub later! I like to use a soapy solution of one good squirt of dish soap and one capful of plain Listerine mouthwash per quart of water, or Safer soap mixed according to package directions.

For plants that tend to give me trouble every winter, I bring out the big guns and spray with Orthene. Some of the smaller plants (such as my collection of fancy-leaved geraniums) I also treat with a systemic insecticide that is mixed into the soil where the plant’s roots can absorb it. They will remain trouble-free all winter because the entire plant becomes poisonous to any insect that may come along. Obviously, everyone needs to make their own decisions about how far they are willing to go in using chemical insecticides.

Now that all of your plants are squeaky clean and looking their best, there’s one more consideration before bringing them inside. Count and clean your saucers! I don’t use saucers under most of my plants all summer, and somehow when I go to retrieve them in the fall, there are never enough, and I have to go shopping. I prefer the thick rigid plastic type. The thin, flexible plastic saucers, while a lot less expensive and easier to find, can be crushed and broken by the larger pots. Clay saucers are porous and will seep water unless they are glazed. It’s wise to put something under the saucer to allow a little air to circulate between it and the floor or table and to absorb the moisture that results from trapped humidity and condensation. A flannel-backed tablecloth cut into appropriately sized circles works really well. It will also protect surfaces from scratches.

Your plants should now be ready to move indoors for the winter. They will go through a period of shock as they adjust to the drastically different indoor conditions (don’t we all?), but they’ll pull through. Just adjust your watering routine to suit the new conditions and slow down on the fertilizer to avoid lanky weak growth. Each time you do water, take a second to check for insect invaders. If you should find any, take action right away. One aphid can reproduce in a matter of days. (In the case of aphids, it doesn’t take two to tango).

With a little bit of planning and attention to detail, we can all make it through till next summer. I promise.