Bringing Tender Plants Indoors

As the gardening season slowly comes to an end, one of our final tasks involves bringing tender plants indoors. Many plants can be overwintered fairly easily, and not just tropicals. Herbs, patio favourites, the list goes on. The process isn’t overly tedious, but does require care and consideration. The benefit however, outweighs the small tedium. Year after year, your plant collection grows with you and you save money. Some annuals are only labelled as such because they cannot handle frost, but remove that aspect and they thrive (while other annuals are exactly that and won’t actually live longer).

When we bring in tender plants, some enter states of dormancy during the low-light of winter, while others will continue to grow, even slowly through the indoor season. Here are several things to consider when preparing for an overwintering:

Timing

While planning around the first frost of the year may seem like the logical approach, consider transitioning well before that time. This is because plants growing in containers and pots react differently to the lowering temperatures. When you consistently have evening temperatures between 10-12C (50-55F), begin the process of overwintering. Alternatively, find your expected first frost date and aim to begin the process 2-4 weeks beforehand for the best chance of success.

Bringing Tender Plants Indoors

While there can be some differences depending on plants, this is a brief overview of what we consider and complete. 

* Before you bring your first plant indoors, consider the location in which they’ll spend the Winter and their specific needs. While adequate light** is essential to a successful season, humidity, watering needs, air circulation and temperature all play a pivotal role. Consider carefully.

*Round up all your tender plants together into one area. Begin with a gentle groom and prune. You’ll want to remove anything that is dead or dying or any fallen debris. Then, look carefully and thoroughly for any pests–under the leaves, around the soil, along the stem. Cut away anything that looks suspicious as the last thing you’ll want to do is bring pests to infect your indoor plants. And if you suspect pests, clean your foliage and rinse it fully. 

*Once the initial groom and prune is complete, you may want to consider further cutting back and down the plants. Here however, proceed with caution and we recommend reviewing best practices for each kind of plant. Lavender for example should be cut down, but never to the wood or it will not grow back, instead with about 1-2 inches above the wood. 

*During this session, you may also consider repotting. Use new indoor potting soil and size up and pots that may be getting a bit snug–although this is another point that is not suitable for every plant as many will enter dormancy during this period. 

*Finally, if you have the time and means, bringing them indoors over a staggered period of time will help acclimate them, starting with overnight, and then moving into longer periods during the day although it’s not necessary. Once indoors, monitor carefully and provide deep waterings at longer intervals. We’ll cover moving plants back outdoors after overwintering on a future installment of the Wild Blog.

Remember, just like any gardening endeavour, experience is part of success, the more you do it the more you learn. However, the other part of gardening to always remember is that sometimes you can do everything right and things don’t turn out the way you’d hope. To that we say, there’s always next year. 

If you don’t already, be sure to follow us on Pinterest and Instagram.