Prepare tender plants for freezing weather

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL

Q: After waiting too long last year to bring my porch plants inside the house, and consequently losing some of them, I am determined to do it right this year. But I’ve read that bringing them back inside too abruptly can be harmful, too. Plus, I’m worried about bringing bugs in the house. What’s the best way to achieve an orderly transfer back indoors?

A: Many potted plants, such as African violets and tropicals including orchids and bromeliads, are tender – meaning they’re sensitive to cold – and should be protected from temperatures below 40 degrees. It doesn't need to get down to freezing to damage them. Other houseplants, such as philodendrons and spider plants, can take a little cold but not a hard freeze.

What's the difference between a frost and a hard freeze? A couple of pre-dawn hours at 30 to 32 degrees is a frost, and most plants that aren’t “tender” get over it. But if it gets down to 28 for a couple of hours or more, your plants will feel it.

Moving plants into a heated home on a chilly night, especially if they've had a progression of nights outside where the temperature has gradually dropped, could cause a shock to their systems and seriously damage them.

So what to do to prepare for our North Florida version of winter? If you’re planning to move plants indoors, first move them to a shaded, protected spot for the next week or so. By protected, I mean out of the wind and rain. If a frost comes in the next couple of weeks, you’ll more than likely be able to cover the plants there instead of taking them indoors.

What you do after that depends on how much work you’re willing to do. You can move the plants from the shady, protected spot in your yard to your house a garage, unheated basement or garden shed after a couple of weeks, cut back on the water and monitor them through the cooler months.

Or you can move them inside the house. The process of moving them in stages is sort of the reverse of taking seedlings out during the warmth of the day in early spring, then bringing them back in at night.

If you’re worried about bugs, give the plants a strong blast from the garden hose. Check the leaves, undersides as well as tops, and pick off any remaining pests. If you want something a little more reassuring, you can mix a mild solution of insecticidal soap and spray it on – a 99-cent spray bottle from the discount store works well – and move the plants inside.

But unless your plants are really tender, you might want to consider leaving them outdoors in a protected location. It will enable you to cover them easily when freezing weather threatens, or move them to the garage, shed or basement if the forecast is really severe.