Hello.. I have 9 ferns that I purchased this spring that are in hanging baskets and I would like to possible save them over the winter months. I had 3 about 5 years ago in my old house that I brought into the house and set on a sheet in my spare bedroom by the window and it made such a mess with the leaves falling off most of the plant. At theat time I heated with propane gas and every single leave fell off those plants. They did servive the winter and I placed them back outside in the following spring. My question is, I don't really want to bring all these ferns inside this fall and leave them in the house all winter, yes the mess is what i'm trying to avoid with 9 plants. Now here's my question? I don't have a basement, just a crawl space under my house. The space is pretty high off the ground and I was wonderding if I could just cut back all or at least most of the leave and stems from the plants and water them really well and just place them in the crawl space for the winter and if ya'll thought they would come back next year. The crawl space is very warm since my new house is just a little over 1,260 square feet, brick and just 2 years old. I don't worry about the ferns freezing, but there is no light under there and I was thinking of cutting them back to maybe 6 to 8 inches tall or should I cut them back to the top of the dirt in the pots. Please let me what I should do about them. Bring them in the house for the winter just isn't an options due to the mess