I trimmed up my ficus pretty seriously last year, not so much reducing height as width and overall bulk. It's a much better fit for its corner now! I've got a few more things to bring inside, also... most are "ready" just sitting near the back door. Got a fresh coat of sealer on the morning room vinyl, so it's good for dragging plants around in there. (Does anybody else "fall clean" their plant spaces, one last chance to clean corner to corner before spring?)

Fall cleaning is a requirement here! During the warm months, the spaces are used for other things, so come fall it all has to be cleared out and prepped for the plants. IN the spring, once the plants are out, it's time to clean up all of the dropped leaves, dust, etc that collect in those corners. Of course, if I had a conservatory or greenhouse, we wouldn't need to do that. (yeh , right!)

I guess the cold weather is really settling in. The plectranthus Mona Lavender that I brought in to overwinter last year got huge while they were outside for the summer. I am going to overwinter them this year too. They are taking most of the available floor space in the living room LOL. I'll probably have to cut them back. May need to do that anyway as part of what they need to keep them healthy?

Terri, glad to see I'm not the only one with elephants in the room. Er, make that rooms.

Jill, love the fall cleaning, before the (plant) take over.....

Yikes you just forget how much everything grows through the summer outside...
They sure never look so space absorbing when they are outside... and if your
a little good at gardening, they all live, multiply and you want to try other stuff...

I'm so glad to read your all's posts about getting your plants inside.. I don't have
a basement or greenhouse, so windows are FULL, and my house is tiny... My family
and neighbors are NOT plant people, most being horrified that I actually bring dirt
in my house. So the looks lately when they walk in to see windows completely filled
with plants is bit overwhelming... Not my plants mind you (l like them), but the
distaste in visitors eyes... The only remark being "Well they are ALL very healthy
looking"

Oh Well....If we were all exactly alike, we'd be really bored...

But, I probably do need a green house or sun room before the news folks come to
do an interview about jungle living...

Aspen---
WOW!!! WOW!!! Your Mona Lavender plants are huge! Spectacular too!

I see them every year when we get them in (at the HD) and they don't excite
me at all. Mostly--I notice how easily the stems break off if the plant is mishandled and how "junky" they look in hanging baskets b/c of it.
For some reason--we did not get as many of the "Monas" in as in past years.
Glad for that!... G.

Donna, you just keep right on with your plants. WE all approve heartily!

My daughter's new apartment has luscious tall southwest facing windows with sills fully 8 inches deep of painted brick. Pretty near perfect for winter plants.

They're gorgeous, Aspen!

Fortunately, I only had 2 plants that needed to come inside, because I have very few sunny windows to begin with, and I'm currently caring for my youngest daughter's plants. She bought a lot of plants, then decided to get a kitten, and asked me to care for her plants for a while because the kitten was eating them.

Call me crazy, but I am charmed by the delicate frost formations and crisp air out this morning. (And I don't have to go anywhere early, so frosted car windows don't bother me today) The brug seems OK but I won't know for sure until things thaw out some, what all succumbed.

Muddy, that short while? The kitten is going to hopefully be around for many years, right? lol. My cats don't bother anything now, but they used to eat Dracaena marginata, with those long grasslike leaves.

My hosta pen is done ! ! !

Setting up the 'car port' frame was easy. Then came the rounding up and relocating of all of the pots around the yard.

Empty beds in the pen...


After rounding up all of the pots...


Everyone is tucked in for the winter!


I probably shouldn't say this, but I dare to eat my hosta!

Come spring, I'll start identifying unmarked pots as we move the leaves. All that's left now is to clean up the assorted pots and trays scattered around the yard. Some I'll keep, but I think most are headed for recycling.

Sally, my daughter has plans to take her plants back and put them in a room that stays closed off from the kitten. We'll see!

Rick, why did you put your hosta in a pen? So deer don't eat the emerging leaves in the spring?

BINGO! I'm tired of providing what they consider to be an 'all you can eat buffet' ! I've also had a problem with both deer and squirrel tipping pots and pulling things out, which rapidly dry out.

Plus, I now have all of my hosta and fern pots in the same location. It will make it a lot easier in the spring when we go to select plants for different areas in the yard.

I'm now setting up two mini-greenhouses in my bedroom to hold some of the stuff that we brought indoors. We just don't have enough windows that get adequate light. I'm rigging up a 'daylight' fluorescent fixture that will provide light to 4 flats. These will hold things like my coffee plants, holiday cactus and orchids. The remaining 6 shelves will hold my caladium bulbs in flats for the winter. Come March/April, I'll add a couple of large pans of potting mix and start the caladium indoors.

Funny how we rearrange indoor space. That time of year.

Mike--
Question,,,You SAY YOU WILL HAVE YOUR CALADIUM BULBS UNDER LIGHTS ALL WINTER??? (oops..capitals...)
Do you dig them up and then put them in trays under lights??

I dug all mine up and put them in a shallow box with a lot of dried, crunched up, leaves in bottom and on top.
I plan to keep them this way all winter in my Shop. Cool--about 58*

My 3 Clivia pots are also in the Shop on my work table right under a 4' fluorescent shop light. That is where they live--and have actually bloomed.
My cut back 3 brugs are down there--as will be a hibiscus I had last summer.

All the rest of any available space is full of houseplants and X-mas cactus and too many Spider Plants. My 2 Epis--and lots of cuttings of all kinds of things. Glad I live alone--I would not want to hear bitching about too many plants. Welll--YES! There are too many..... Gita

weatherunderground tells me it is 27 degrees F out there

Still enough tree cover to moderate our immediate environs. Both outdoor sensors bottomed out at 32.1°f, while the open fields across the road are white with a heavy coating of frost. A weather reporting station just up the road a mile logged 26.1 for a low.

Yay for greenthumb and ecnalg! It looks like that will get you another week or more of frost free living.

Very little frost damage here- no whole plants, just leaves here and there

Gita,
I dug up all of my caladium (or took them out of the pots). I washed off as much dirt as I could and let them dry. Now, they're spread out in daisy trays (mesh flats) and will stay that way until late March or early April. At that time, I'll put them into fresh potting mix with some fertilizer, water them well and place them into my little greenhouses in my bedroom. Once the start to sprout, I put them under stronger lights where they'll stay until after the last frost. Then I'll kick 'em outside around the yard.

Pouring rain. Started over night and has not stopped. No Gardening today!!