what will you bring in? Bare root? Cuttings? when will you do it, and where will you put them?

I'm not a huge fan of taking cuttings in the fall becasue I haven't had great success- we get so little light and once the furnace kicks on its so SOOO dry. Early winter is depressing enough without watching cuttings wilt over or rot!

BUT... I had some really beautiful hanging baskets of new guinea inpatients and they're pretty pricey for an annual at $5 a pop compared to petunia flats that work out to 25 cents a plant. I heard they root readily in water... but HOLY MACKEREL - in 2-3 weeks there's vases with roots everywhere- I've been cutting the mess outta the mother plants and potting up by the dozen. They made the transition to potting soil with nearly no losses- they're like philodendrom- shove 'em in a vase and come back in a month. Its amazing. I don't know if they will make it through the winter, becasue I have them in really small pots that I am sure will need to be watered more than I am used to. I'll forget for one ten day period in march when they will all die, but lets see!

Tonight I potted up some fresh citronella geranium cuttings, AKA mosquito plant (they don't deter mosquitoes- false advertising, but they do smell nice and are pretty foliage. i'll let you know how it goes

What do you try? What worked before? what didn't? what's working this year? I want to hear all your stories

When you have a plant that is not a true annual, saving is possible. Impatiens hawkeri (the New Guinea kind) & Pelargoniums (your citronella "Geranium") are perennials, and some Petunias. Sounds like you're on a track with potential for great & fun success!

Some of my fav houseplants found in the annuals section, so many Coleus, so many Begonias, calico plants / parrot leaf (Alternantheras), Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus,) "spikes" (Cordyline indivisa, C. australis, and sometimes Dracaena marginata,) ornamental purslane (Portulaca umbraticola,) polka dot plant (Hypoestes,) various Plectranthus (Cuban oregano, 'Mona Lavender',) Tahitian bridal veil (Gibasis geniculata,) Perilla 'Vanilla' & 'Magilla',,,

25 cents a petunia in NYC! That is cheap! It's good to know NG impatiens can be rooted with water.I have never been successful overwintering impatiens except maybe Fusion once. I don't remember if it was worth it for me but a relative does them all the time with good success. She treats them like houseplants by the window during the winter.
I've done many of the plants Tiffany has. Also geraniums, pentas, abutilon, shrimp plant, ginger. I've also taken cuttings of salvias, geraniums. I bring in tender herbs like lemon verbena, bay leaf and stevia. I haven't been so successful with the needled herbs like rosemary, lilac and curry. Some plants like mandevilla, spanish lilac and gerbera aren't worth the rebound time in my case. Some always get infested before winter is over. I don't take salvia cuttings anymore because they always have whitefly that gets out of control indoors. This year I am going to try their roots.

How are things going, Paula? Loretta?

Well, my dining room is overrun at the moment. I let my ginger die back because it was too big for the house and I read you can keep the rhizomes so we will see about that. I dug up salvia roots for the first time. I let all my geraniums go save one. I let my shrimp plant go because it always bloomed too late. Also the fuschia, purslane, lantana - you can't save everything. And some - a maranta, some elephant ears, a fern- I left out too long but I think they will come back from the root.
I still have to switch out some soil to control the bugs but I find keeping some soil life in the pots deters the fungus gnats.
Once we get past the holidays, I want to rearrange the basement and make a lighted table. I have some boards and some horses that should work. The plants get too big for the shelves.
How about you, Tiffany?

I'm wishing I'd saved more ornamental purslane stems (Portulaca umbraticola) and Coleus, but I didn't have to let anything go, that I can remember at the moment. Except for some pineapple tops... hopefully they can take a light frost because all but 1 are still in ground.

Since I'd left almost everything potted this summer, vs. how I'd put almost everything in the ground in previous years, it was no big deal this time when Jack Frost showed up (uh, especially if I'm in denial so far & didn't dig up those pineapples yet.) But yikes! The same plants in the same pots (mostly) are taking up a lot more room, or I haven't arranged them as well...!

If I don't find some NOT divided plastic plates soon, things are going to start getting way too dry. I can't afford the ridiculous price of the clear saucer things, ($1 each!!!?) so I'm really hoping to find some of those plates. I've got somewhere around 75-90 pots in my house w/o drip saucers. I don't want to go through another winter that way.

You mean plates like these?
https://www.partycity.com/big-...

There is a local greenhouse that sells very healthy 6 inch pots of the portulaca for $4 every year (hopefully) so I took a chance on that. These greenhouses don't change their selections too much but you never know what won't return. I wish I had kept/didn't lose a few plectranthus I've had over the years, especially P. argentea Variegated.
I have been wanting to overwinter is the Diamond Frost Euphorbias because you need a few of those to make it look good. I rooted some of those just by sticking a stem in the pot last summer but they didn't get full. I need more light space for that.

I've had some DF Euphorbia since 2016 I think. It does make an interesting, cascading potted plant. Blooms the whole time it's outside.

Those plates are way more than I was thinking. I was hoping to find a pack of like 50 for about $3-$4.

I can also find portulaca inexpensively, and they're pretty easy to grow from seed. My grandmother had a section at the foot of her "Mother Mary on the half shell" behind a retaining wall. She swore all she did was put out a sprinkler for 15 minutes every other dry afternoon when seedlings started to come in the spring.
I believe her, but she also kept horses and spread compost all over everything for 50 years so...

As for tender perennials like rosemary and time, I've had EXCELLENT luck overwintering by mulching well with fallen leaves and/or small 'greenhouse' type covers- plastic or glass. Last year we had a really bad cold spell relatively early in the winter where it didn't get over 20 degrees for 11 days in a row. My thyme that had already made it therough at least 4 winters died but surprisingly when I raked the leaves off he rosemary in the spring it already had green tips on it and came back gang busters. I've certainly done better overwintering outdoors with a good layer of insulation than I have caring for them indoors.

I'll give you another grandma tip- she would go to the town dump each fall and pick up old carpet and lay that over thyme parsley cilantro and rosemary- it was so gross - heavy wet yucky - but they made it every year. The woody stemmed stuff needed spring to come back- but she had fresh parsley by easter every year.

This year I have ALREADY let many of my impatient cuttings dry out- they dry so fast this time of year, but they're still solidy rooted into their soil - you can't pull they out and one has a new green bud at the soil line, so I think these babies are pretty resilient once they take root.

half of the citronella/gardenia cuttings went through the same dry spell and are doing fine, and that was a non-rooted cutting. So they are getting the easy-peasy award.

Tiffany, Walmart has 150 foam plates for $4.27 in the store here.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gre...

I dug up the salvia but never did anything with it so I think they are dead

Paula, maybe I'll try burying the rosemary in leaves and see if that works more. I do have a spot by the community garden where I planted a row of rosemary that lived for three years and grew 2 feet tall. It was an unusual spot. The kiosk had a little roof so it was very dry and it was a built up mound of red mulch without much soil for several inches. Lilac planted at the same time is still living, reseeding and expanding. Unfortunately, it is the pink flowered lilac which isn't so showy. I'm going to try replanting the rosemary and see if I can repeat the success.
Parsley is a biennial for me. Cilantro self sows. The portulacas aren't the old fashioned reseeding kind. It's this kind and I've never gotten seed as far as I can tell.

*Edit- I meant to say lavender, not lilac.

Well, I didn't do very well making through the winter (very year I get all promise-y about how I'm going to give them winter attenton, but the time simply doesn't exist!). The house is so dry, even with my fish tanks loosing nearly 20 gallons of water a week into the atmostphere..

I think my mistake was putting rooted cuttings into small (3") containers, and all of my windows have radiators right below them... they dry out in a day. I'll do better next year. LOL

Welcome back, Paula! I've been wondering what happened to you.

I am sorry I cut back the ginger. It is still alive but only sending shoots up here and there. I should have tried keeping it in the basement as is. The leaves that it still has tolerated the lack of light pretty well. Everything else survived save two marantas that never recovered and a couple of coleus cuttings.

I always take coleus cuttings in the fall. I find it works best for me to stick them in 3" pots of potting soil and let them start rooting outside before it gets cold, then bring them inside. If they get too leggy before spring I take cuttings from the cuttings and put them in water until the roots just start showing, then put them in soil. Lost way more than normal this last winter. Think I was a little lazy about watering.

I also overwinter a lot of tender succulents in a South facing window. This last winter I also rooted a couple ornamental sweet potato cutting in water and then moved them to soil in 4" pots.

Just bought 11 sunpatients and am thinking I will try to take cuttings this fall. They get expensive at $5 to $6 each. Am also growing Crossandra Orange Marmalade for the first time this year. Bought some little plugs from eBay that are doing well. If I decide to grow them again I will take some cuttings this fall.


Cannas,caladiums and elephant ears get saved over winter in the basement. I just let them dry, then toss them into heavy paper bags.