I must admit I had not been paying attention to the weather, we've been traveling a lot to visit our DS in college.

Imagine my surprise today when I checked the10 day weather forecast, to find that our temps are going down into the low 30's starting Friday night, with freezing temps expected Saturday night! 😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰

All of my plants were still on the back deck, some of them including Rainbow Shade and Pink pudica are still blooming. I quickly cut off the leaves on the plants that weren't in bloom and carried them into to house, where they were placed in the basement, along with all my tropical plants from the deck, steps and walkway. The DH carried in a few of the larger plants for me thank goodness!

I left the leaves on the plants that are still blooming, and when they're done, I'll be cutting the leaves off of them as well. These were placed by a window where they'll get some sunlight.

Nothing like the threat of freezing weather, and possible snow flurries further north from us, to get me motivated to get the plants inside or lose them.

What does everyone else do to prep for winter? I'll also be spraying the plants this week to help prevent spider mites and mealy bugs.

I will do a similar prep soon Annette, my only two plumies are still outdoors, but Friday too will bring in cold rain and cold night temps. My Plumie Celadine is still making some blooms and fully leafed, and my other smaller one is slowly getting yellow lower leaves, so it is ready to sleep.

tarev, enjoy your last few blooms. All of my plumies are now warm and snug in the basement, and I dug up the last 2 Brugs and got them inside this evening.

I've got some potted standard hibiscus, and my 2 pots of shrimp plants, as well as my Meyer Lemon tree to bring in tomorrow. I'm so glad I got all of the tender plants in so quickly. We're going down to 34 degrees tomorrow night, I'm sure we'll also have frost.

Annette, I don't think I've ever seen a pink Pudica. I have a lot of the white ones. I don't envy the extra work you have by moving your plumerias inside. I have a couple of the plumie trees outside, in the ground, and they are now beginning to look very "ragged". Quite a few leaves have dropped off and I've picked others off because of the underlying rust. Actually, I do have some extra work, because I pick up the fallen leaves.

Even though I live in sunny Florida, it's not unusual to get a few very cold nights. Then I bring out my frost cloths, because I have a lot of tropicals, orchids, succulents and cactus, etc. That is work I dread doing. My plumeria trees are far too big now to be covered if/when the temperature really drops. Have to keep my fingers crossed now.

I have finally indoors my little Plumie, but I decided to leave Plumie Celadine outdoors. I want to observe how it will take it. Have put it in a sunnier location, though for sure not much sun this coming two days. Some of my orchids are indoors already as well, while those that are cold loving ones will just be in my growcamp, have installed the plastic foil covers.

I was busy spraying the plants, and then also potting a batch of new semps from Lynn woohoo!

Okay cold rain, we are ready..you can come now!

@Annette, Can I ask why you remove the leaves? Is there a benefit to that rather than letting them fall off naturally? I have seed pods on one of mine. What should I do with them?? It is the largest tree that is shedding leaves as we speak. None of my plumies are in the greenhouse yet.

Hi Cheryl,

I remove the leaves to encourage the plants to go dormant, as well as to prevent a big mess in the basement when they fall off. It also makes the planter lighter to carry into the house.

I also stopped watering the plants that weren't blooming in past 2 weeks to encourage dormancy. Our night temps were getting cool, into the 40-50's, and the bottom leaves on the plants were starting to turn yellow.

Hopefully, Hetty will chime in about what to do about your plant with the seed pod. I've never been fortunate enough to have a seed pod form.

It is good practice to remove the leaves even if it is a big chore. You don't want a mat of leaves in your storage area with the result that you get bugs etc breeding in them.
The seedpod should happily hang on through dormancy and will further mature, to open some time in the late spring.

Glad I came over here. I usually take mine in and watch them drop their leaves indoors. I will be bringing my two plants in this weekend along with all the tender stuff.

Thanks @Hetty. Good news on the seed pods. I brought my plumeria in today just in case. It is forecasts between 38º and 40º. And though it won't last many hours. I didn't want to shock them into dormancy. It could very well warm up again in the next few weeks. My yellow NOID is in full bloom. I was careful in bringing in the potted tall trees and they made it safely into the new greenhouse. I put them in the sunniest corner.

Mike, I used to allow my plants to drop their leaves naturally, however, it left such a huge mess, so I started trimming the leaves before bringing them in. I have over 20 plants in pots of various sizes, that used to produce a lot of leaves to clean up.

I'm glad I got all of my plumeria and tender plants in, temps are in the low 30's this morning. Fall has arrived abruptly, with the 10 day forecast showing temps in the 50's to 60's in the daytime, and nighttime temps in the 30's to low 40's.

The outside time for all of my tender plants are done. I started rearranging the basement yesterday, to get the 2 pink and 1 white pudica plants closer to the window, along with my brugs. The pudicas don't drop their leaves during the winter, so they get watered sparingly, and have done fine overwintered like this for me in the past.

Cheryl, I clip the leaves off, leaving a nub of each leaf stem on the tree limb. They will fall off naturally without much clean up. The tree doesn't exude as much latex goo that way. Just another way to do it.

I built a (temporary) GH inside my garage. It is 10'x6'x8'H and is covered with 16 mil solar blanket material. I moved all my (large) potted plumeria inside the GH as well as perhaps 75 cuttings, last week, before the temperature dropped to freezing. I trimmed all the leaves off, leaving only those tiny, terminal ones and left the seed pods as-is, according to Hetty's instructions. I first used a small, oil-filled electric heater, but it kept the temperature 80 F (on the lowest setting with the outside temperature getting down to 30 F), but have now switched to a "base-board" heater to lessen the heat generated. The solar blanket material really keeps the heat in and the cold out! My 18 seedlings are in a (real) GH and I will maintain them through the fall/winter months. The two that germinated last December are now 30" tall. The others range from 10" to 24".