I plan on taking some of my plants inside this weekend. I am talking ones I have to dig up out of the garden. Usually, they'd be inside by now, but with the nice weather (and no frost yet) they are still outside. If frost threatens before I bring them in, I just cover them for the night. Most are okay as long as they don't freeze. In fact, my hibiscus, in a pot on the deck, has been through some pretty cool mornings from spring right to fall.

I plan on digging up a few geraniums, impatiens, maybe a wave petunia. Then I have a pot with a tropical plant called Paraguan nightshade (solanum). Hopefully I can provide it good light to overwinter, but if not, I'll just cut back the scraggly growth next spring and put it back outside.

If you haven't heard, the forecast is suppose to do a turnaround. 20 C today, but tomorrow rain, perhaps mixed with snow, and only 4 for a high. But nicer and warmer for early next week.

I brought my brugmansia in a month ago when frost threatened. I wasn't sure that it was very cold tolerant, so I didn't want to take the chance of losing it.
Friday's forecast doesn't sound good at all, you'd probably want to bring yours in tonight.
Laurie

Glen, how does your wave petunia do inside? I have a pot started from cuttings taken from the main container (silver waves), and they're looking really nice right now. I'd love to keep them inside for awhile. As for impatiens, i've taken cuttings of all mine and will battle the aphids and fungus gnats all winter - again!

Marciaz3, what do you aim to use to battle the aphids, mites, and gnats?

The annual "war on fungus gnats", I can relate. Oh well, the bonus is that the cat likes chasing them around and swatting at them.

Actually Marcia, I have never taken my wave petunia inside, but my Mom was telling me my Aunt has tried this. Apparently she cut it back alot and kept it on her windowsill all winter. It didn't do much but when spring came it started growing vigorously and she was able to take cuttings of it.

By the way, how do you take cuttings of petunias? Do you dip the cuttings into rooting hormone and then place in moist soil?

I never got the chance to dig any plants out last night, so tonight I might be running around with blankets. The weather people were saying occasional showers with perhaps wet snow mixed in for today but this morning we wake up and it's windy, cold (1C), but clear. Not that I'm complaining, it's definitely easier to take the cold on a sunny day than rainy/snowy.

I use a homemade spray for fungus gnats - let's see if i can remember the recipe. In a gallon of water, put a cup of rubbing alcohol, a teaspoon of dish soap, and i think there's a teaspoon of baking soda in it too. I spray the dirt with it, and it does keep them down a bit. I also use those yellow sticky-traps, and manage to catch a lot of those little bugs (!) that way. A good trick for aphids is to swish your whole plant around in soapy dishwater. It works! I pot the impatiens up in smaller containers so i can hold my hands over the dirt and it doesn't fall out during the swishing process.

Glen, earlier in the summer when the petunias were getting leggy, i clipped a few of them, dipped them in rooting hormone and stuck the cuttings into pots of soil. They rooted well and are blooming now. The large container is way too big to bring inside, but i'll try it with the little container.

And Glen, we have your cold wind and rain here today - oh wait, a bit of sun is shining through the library windows! All right - maybe no snow today then! (Ack - i said the "s" word....) The Terry Fox Run is postponed till next week, and so is the seed-gathering i was going to do with the kids' gardening club - assuming, of course, that the wind hasn't blown all the seeds away!

I ran around with sheets last night. I potted some lavendar and rosemary. Has anyone potted and wintered these 2 plants. I've tried it with basil- it didn't do good. My glads have not even bloomed, so hubby put a t-shirt around each of them and a clothes pin to close. He wants to see them bloom too. still have to plants 50 lily and daylily that I dug up last week

Daylady, I've had a rosemary plant for about 4 years that I take out in the summer and bring in for winter. It seems to be quite happy with this arrangement :-)
Good luck with the glads. Mine bloomed quite late this year too.

Someone mentioned taking cuttings of impatiens...how do you do this? I have always started mine from seed, but they are so tiny I'd love to try doing some from cuttings.

Just clip off a piece of your impatiens and put the stem in water. Within a few weeks it will have little roots, and a few weeks after that you can pot it up in soil. This year, i took cuttings from every colour, and since i had started them from a mixed seed packet, there are quite a few! They're often blooming again by January or February, and by then are MOST welcome!

What fun. Had no idea there were so many YWGers on here.

I've potted up my echevaria, crocrosmia, alstromeria, various arums, bay tree, couple of zone 8 lilies, Potato vine and some louisiana iris. All sitting outside door till the very last moment.

Inanda - who would love to know how Glen holds over his Japanese Maple outside all winter.

Hi Inada,

Basically for my Japanese Maples I mulch similar like how people mulch hybrid tea roses, only ensuring the mulch covers a higher portion of the tree:

In October, I dig a hole in the flower bed, preferably a sheltered spot such as near the house foundation. I Sink the pot into the hole, and fill around the pot with loose soil. That protects the roots but not the top part.

For the top part, I then take a cardboard box with the flaps removed and place this around the tree. Sort of like a make shift rose collar, but higher. I then fill the box up with peat moss, and then leaves, in other words, filling in around the tree (burying) with these materials. When it snows I also pile lots of snow around it and over top. they are usually in a shady spot on the north side of the house, so the snow doesn't melt.

Of course the easiest method might be to simply stick the pot in a cold room, but I don't have that. The drawback of my method is it's sort of a pain to do each year and it probably won't work once the tree gets higher than, say, 2 feet. Or, should I say it will work but any part of the tree not winter protected will probably die back. But so far it works great, no winter damage.

In fact I reasoned to myself that since I was sinking the pot into the ground in fall anyways, what's the difference between that and planting one of my maples in the flower bed permanently. I tried it and it seems to work. As there's no pot to sink, I just start with the cardboard box around the plant and start filling from there.

Wow Glen.

You have sold me. I'm going to bring back a small jap maple next time I go to BC> Had absolutely no idea they could be overwintered outside here. Had thought of burying one in a cold greenhouse over the winter but thought that wouldn't work. Greenhouse gets really hot in the sun during the day.

Guess that is called really pushing the zones.

Many thanks, Glen

Inanda

Hi Inanda,

There is a discussion of Japanese Maples and winter protection on the 'Maple forum'. I have attached the link. One member, Snaz, says he builds a structure out of chicken wire and then insulating material. I might try his method and see, as it beats burying the small tree in peat moss. I have two maples so maybe I'll try both methods.

There are many beautiful types of Japanese maples but I like my inabe shidare. It sort of has lacy red leaves an almost weeping habit. Anyways, my maple is now sunk into the ground for winter, but I am waiting until things get colder before I do the above ground winter protection thing. One thing to note, they grow very slowly, so it's not like you'll have a one foot tree this year and suddenly have to worry about winter protecting a six foot high one next year.

Not sure if an unheated greenhouse would work if it warms up during the day. There is a 8 foot high Japanese Maple growing at Shelmerdines Nursery in a pot. I am not sure what they do with it for winter, but they might just leave it in what I assume is the unheated part of the greenhouse. It's located in the hobby plant section and it's pretty large, so maybe they just keep in that section of the greenhouse and turn off the heat, or else keep heated near, say, 0 C/32 F? It would be interesting to hear how they handle this.

Good luck,

Here is a link that might be useful: inabe shidare and fall color