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last1earth

Please guys- Help me understand how to overwinter these plants

last1earth
18 years ago

Hello guys! :)

This will be my first time with some of these and would love some help.

1)Bananas in 1 or 2 gallon containers. Before or after frost do I bring them in? And can I just stick the whole pot in the basement to overwinter?

2)Brugmansias in pots. Do I bring them in, before or after first frost? (for basement overwintering)

3)Mandevilla. Can it go dormant? Storage in basement? Berfore or after first frost do I bring it in?

4)Plumeria. Before or after frost do I bring it in? How do I overwinter it?

5)Hibiscus Tropical. Can I put them in the basement? It does'nt freeze but it darkish. Would they go semi-dormant?

Thanks so much if anybody can help, I was trying to look up tips for these but plowing thru so much info makes my eyes hurt. So thanks if anyone can give me tips?

Comments (4)

  • bihai
    18 years ago

    Let me put it this way.
    If you leave your plumeria out in a frost, it will be damaged. Maybe not killed, but as a succulent stemmed tropical tree, it is very susceptable to cold damage and then subsequent rot. SO if you like it, be certain to bring it inside before the frost occurs. I take mine in when the temps start to get into the 40's. You can do 2 things. You can leave it in its pot and set it in a corner...when the light is drastically reduced they will defoliate and try to go dormant. Water ir very very sparingly...maybe a cup or 2 every 2 weeks or less. Just enough to keep the trunks and branches from shrivelling. Or you can unpot it, rinse all the soil off the roots, and store it completely dormant in a cool dry place.

    Brugmansia and bananas....again, if you like them, bring them in before frost. Brugmansia is like plumeria, a soft-wood tropical tree. They will defoliate in temperatures between 28/29-32, and regrow leaves if it warms back up, but in a hard frost below the high 20's, damage to the wood will occur. In an ectremely hard frost (here that means 20-26) they may freeze to the ground. Ours are perennial, they come back every spring because our ground never freezes and over a single season reach heights of 12-16 feet. Yours probably won't be perennial. I have never had to winter a brug indoors, but I have heard others say that they will go dormant.

    Bananas, again, mine are perennial. Even if theleaves burn off in a frost, the trunks stay up. But I have grown bananas indoors as potted plants and they do fine if they get enough light.

    I don;t bother with hibiscus here, they get too many whitefly infestations for me, and I don't grow mandevilla either.

    WHatever you bring inside to overwinter, really REALLY reduce your watering. Many people lose plants in the winter that they bring in and then overwater and rot.

  • riverwoman
    18 years ago

    Thanks for the info, Bihai. I moved my stuff and tropicals from a house I was selling in Katrina country two weeks before she washed my house away! I'm living near Dallas now, and wondered what to do with my tropicals. I'm wondering if any tropicals will make it through the winter on a very sunny south side of a house? How about under a clear plastic "roof" on my back patio?

  • bihai
    18 years ago

    I have had family in Dallas since I was born and lived there for a time in the 60's. It gets a bit too cold for most tropical stuff. Dallas is unlike my present climate here in No FL in that when its cold, it STAYS cold for several days. It really never stays too cold for too many nights in MS or FL. It warms back uo to the 70's a lot in the days, and we have many days of 80's in November. We have been to Dallas visiting relatives and had it be in the low to mid 20's every night for the whole time we were there, 5-7 nights, in December. And the daytime highs are COLD too, 40's and 50's. That kind of prolonged cold really hurts tropicals. I'd try to bring them inside if I were you, somehow.

  • ohgirl
    16 years ago

    great advice thanks for me too!!!!!