Costus (spiral ginger)
Brugmansia (angel trumpet)
Pittosporum (cheesewood)
Syringa (lilac)

Sorry, Tiffany, none of them.

TY, Ken.

Are you say inside 12 months a year?

I grew spiral ginger and Brugmansia like I grow all my tropicals. In the winter they are in my laundry room which is about 60 degrees no supplement light. I give them a little water every other month or so and they are moved outside for the summer.

I was into the Brugs big time had about 8 of them. My mother got sick and I did not have the time or the strength to bring in the huge trees they had become. The ginger died because I did not water it at all the entire winter.

TYVM!

My spiral gingers and Brugs are inside am avg. 62º greenhouse since Novemeber and thriving right now. Does that count?

Everything counts, Cheryl!

So Cinta, are you saying that dormant gingers have to have some water in the winter months otherewise they will die?

Debbie because of the temps in my laundry room none of my tropicals go dormant. They slow down but do not go dormant. At the temperature of my laundry room it is like a warm spring type weather so everything needs just a little moisture to not dry out and they still grow a leaf or two during the winter. I leave the lights on in the room 24/7 and there is a little light that comes through the windows.

I do not put my tropicals to sleep because I like a earlier full plant when I put them put vs starting from the beginning. My plants are full by June doing the semi-dormant growing method. My Brugs use to start blooming late June early July vs Aug or Sept. My growing season is short enough I want everything if full swing as early as possible. .

I have had spiral ginger and brugs as house plants and they have done fine
By houseplants I mean inside Oct-May and outside under a tree / front porch in the summer.
always in pots . The brugs just got too big and I no longer have any , but they can do well by taking cuttings and such , I just only have so much window space.
Still have the ginger 5-6 years now.

So purple what are you thinking. Are you thinking of growing them inside year round?

I know I am. When do they bloom?

TYVM for the replies!

Those are 4 plants I wouldn't think would be able to get enough light inside, but always eager to learn more info & techniques for 'cheating' mother nature. I'd love to have some Costus!

Deebie, Syringa blooms in April/May up north. It's not cold enough during winter here for them to form buds, so for that reason also, IDK but I think this would make a poor house plant unless one has a freezer to store it for winter.

Brugmansias bloom at the end of summer here, usually frost gets them while they're in their prime. Then they grow back from the ground in the spring. I've taken cuttings to bring inside to get started growing over winter (to increase number of plants in the yard.) In a W window, they were pitiful. Although these would love to stay warm and sunny all winter, being directly adjacent to the best light I had to offer wasn't enough to keep them growing well (but the did stay alive, definitely.)

IDK the other 2 plants, other than that I've never heard of anyone growing Pittosporum as a house plant. IDK if that means nobody tries, they tried & found it unsuitable, or I've just happened to miss conversations about it.

Plants that must go outside for summer to do well don't fit my personal idea of a house plant, saving for winter is different from a permanent house plant, but that is for each person to decide, based on their tastes & conditions, and personal definition of house plant. If I had a sunroom, or an east/south/west wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, I'm sure I could branch out quite a bit more. For better or worse, my perspective has so far been only in an ordinary house with ordinary windows. (C'mon lottery ticket!)

I understand what you are saying about houseplants going outside. For me it is just easier to give them summer vacation outside I have about a hundred houseplants and they would get neglected inside in the summer when I spend so much time outside in the garden . And letting them have rain and the hose helps with watering.
I think some are just happier out , the fig trees will set fruit inside but I get larger, and in my opinion tastier, fruit if they go outside.

Cinda, you are absolutely right-on. The vast majority of our houseplants are tropical plants, and they would benefit by spending the spring-fall outside. Of course, lots of them are shade-loving plants (which is what makes them good houseplants), so they would need to be protected from the sun. I make sure mine get no direct sun between 11:00 AM and 4:00 PM. If they can get a few hours or early morning and/or late afternoon sun, so much the better.

Agree with both! All of my plants go outside for summer too. It is the plants that can grow normally inside all of the time that I consider house plants. But not all houses have the same conditions. Those that can't do well in an average house, I would hesitate to call a house plant, but that's such a gray area, slippery slope, and can't really be quantified. Even "grow normally" could be debated, with many valid points on several different sides. For example, some might absolutely love a Brugmansia plant even if it could never make blooms, where others might prefer to have something else that could easily make blooms instead in the same conditions. It's very subjective, and I appreciate the discussion about it. Folks can read the anecdotes, the conditions that produced them, to compare them with the conditions they have, plants that interest them, and be more able to decide if a particular plant in a particular location would work for them, and how to give it a try.

I bring my gingers inside due to the rare cold (sub 0) temps that we get some times. I have sun available to them through sky lights and have had my blue ginger bloom early in December and my spiral is presently blooming.

All the others that had bloomed earlier in the season were trimmed back and let to go in to dormancy. They appear to do fine every year. Come Springtime (just around the corner) out they go, nothing in the house except the orchids.

Do those ginger rhizomes all grow at or just under the soil surface, Paul, making them easy to dig up? When they go outside, are they in the landscape or grow in pots?

Ken,
I generally grow them in pots, but just at the surface, like an iris. I partially bury the pots to make them more aesthetically pleasing, same as my plumeria. the ones that are still "working" in late October get put on the kitchen cabinets, where the skylight/sun windows allow 4-7 hours of sun a day for them.

I already dig callas, cannas, elephant ears, calladiums and a variety of other things, potted is easier.