Dear plant loving readers, I have some food for thought for you, which may be helpful if you live in a cold, or fairly cold climate. Ever heard of overwintering? It's not a new idea, in fact it originated in Victorian England in order to save some of the exotic species collected from around the world from the English winter. The concept is that one watches the outdoor temperatures, and does some research as to which plants can or cannot tolerate those temperatures, and those which can not tolerate low temperatures, are quite simply brought into the house and placed in the appropriate spot (either sunny or bright indirect, depending on the plant) until the temps outdoors go up again.
Sounds simple but in fact there is some science to it, as far as acclimating plants to come indoors, as well as what to do when you put them out again in the spring. For the former of these two, take a look at my recent article on overwintering on Houzz.com.
And in the meantime, I'll be doing a little research on just how to overwinter my mandevilla vine, who is still flowering in late October, but does not tolerate the frosts (and one or two days of snowfall) here in our mountaintop home in Northern Israel. Wish me luck, I failed at an attempt to overwinter last year, hopefully now that I've become a little more educated on the subject all will go well. Fingers crossed, love those pink blooms.
