I had better luck just leaving things dormant until the weather is reliably warm. It seemed like the temps had to stay above 55 degrees and then some moisture in order to break dormancy. Even with all that I lost plenty of plants that just struggled to wake up in the spring. They would look fine and appear to be sprouting new growth and then something would go wrong and they were rot.

I have a bunch of pots clustered in a corner of my dark basement and some of them have kept their leaves and some haven't. They're too big to haul in and out whenever the days get warm in the winter so they'll have to wait until Spring is really here.

Thanks, John. I have not done this before except with amaryllis, and then I don't worry about the foliage dying back. It'll just be a bonus if these do well. Do you think it's also better to withold all water? In the cold temps they don't seem to dry out that much anyway.
Linda

Since my dormant collection is a wide variety of plants - some of them need more water than others during the winter. I tend to let them completely dry out between waterings. I might water a really large pot with one quart of water each month, more if they still have leaves and appear to be alive and growing. If they're sleeping and naked I let them stay dry longer and worry about them less.

I thought they might do better on the dry side but I thought they'd shrivel up if totally dry. I'd be interested in hearing which varieties of plants do ok kept like this in winter. I guess something like a pot of caladiums would do ok ? In the past I dug up caladiums and I think I put them in dry peat but they didn't make it. Maybe they'd do better left in a pot. I have some of those tiny petunias..what do you call them, starts with a C I think. They're outside in the cold and some still have a few green leaves. If they are that intent on surviving, I wonder if those could be overwintered inside in dark.

caladiums do ok in a dry pot- but they must be kept above freezing- preferably above 45 or so or they'll rot.

I think you mean Calibrachoa or Million Bells, the small leaf, small flower relative of petunias. Many of them are perfectly hardy in this zone (zone 7). I sometimes cover them with a blanket of leaves that allows a few green leaves to peek out and other times I just leave them alone. They often survive but never really take over the flowerbed, you still have to buy some each year.

Tropical bulbs like Caladiums and some of the elephant ears and Calla lilies do best if kept dry and above freezing until like mid May - they slow down so much during cool weather that it can hurt them. Its best to wait until its really warm to wake them up. I usually dig them up and check them for rot or damage and then put them in a large pot of dry loose potting mix. I might check them off and on throughout the winter just to make sure nothing is eating them or that they aren't drying out too much. They might get watered a few times over the winter.

Plants like brugmansia - Angels Trumpet can go dormant, lose all their leaves, and be kept sleeping with little attention or water - but you have to keep them in the dark while they are sleeping. If there is any sunlight coming through a window it will signal for them to keep some leaves and then they will need more water and attention. Its easiest to just let them shed their leaves and dry out for the winter and then wake them up in the spring.

Elephant ears can be the trickiest, some of them don't form the large storage root and they like it warm and moist all winter. They tend to rot if kept cool.

Yes, Calibrachoa is the name. I always assumed I couldn't overwinter many tender plants because my light is not that good indoors. I used to overwinter pots of brugmansia indoors with dim light. They didn't look good but did make it through the winter. Then I planted in the ground and they seemed hardy enough here. Got too big for my garden so I might try some in pots again as they were very hard to dig up.

Why did you need to dig them up? Brugs are hardy here but they do emerge late, so they don't get as large or flower as early as pot grown ones. You can always leave one in the ground and take cuttings in the fall, right after a light freeze kills the leaves but not the stem- they root easily- as insurance against late emergence or a possibly harsh winter. They are reasonably easy to overwinter as cuttings just in water! You just have to change it out every so often or oxygenate it with an aquarium pump. Someone on here had a big post about it a while back- try searching.

Tamelask,
I dug them up because they took up too much space in my garden, and created too much shade for other plants I wanted more. Also they seem to be water hogs. The ones in the ground got much bigger than pot grown ones here. I do think they're pretty plants and wish I had more space. Growing them in pots would work for me again though they stll require a lot of watering!
Linda

I guess it depends on the size of the container- i've seen ones in containers get larger than ground ones, but they do need lots of room, water and food. You're right- they are water hogs!