Carol,
I envy you having a basement to overwinter your plants in. I wish I did. Aside from collecting the seeds of my favorites, I usually will take cuttings and of course have to keep them going over the winter. My kitchen last year looked more like a green house than a kitchen.

Penny

Thanks for the details on basement storage Carol. While I'm lucky enough to have an above freezing florida room, but I find that each year I need more space. A greenhouse seem out of the question at this point, so something has to give. Since the basement is almost as big as the house, there's room down their to spare.

Have you tried to keep plants longer in storage? In the best of all worlds I would want to keep them under raps until April. The crowding in the back room in March can be extreme, what with all the cuttings and plants grown from seed. You indicate that you don't water your plants during their long sleep, but I wonder how long you can get away with that - until April?

Lastly, I'm impressed with indigo spires too. One that I planted out as a 6 inch cutting about June 1 is now 10 feet across and absolutely covered with flower spikes. As well as attracting hummingbirds it has been a favorite with butterflies. It is sited next to a nature center parking lot and has been the talk of the gardens. The one I kept in a large pot at home is much more modest, though beautiful. Next year I'll plant one at home in the ground too. I just love plants that vastly exceed expectations.

Penny,
Do you have trouble with them getting buggy when you keep them growing inside? It is nice having a basement-I grew Robert Kemp cannas this year from seed (very easy) and it will be my first try keeping them over the winter in the basement too.

Ward,
I have been thinking of waiting until March or April for some of them this year. This year my Dallas Red lantana (a real hummingbird favorite for me) got buggy so I put it outside for a few days during a hot spell in April and forgot to bring it in when we had a frost. It did come back although all of the new growth died back so it was a bit slower than I had hoped. I think as long as I checked to make sure that they don't get too dry, waiting until April might work. I'll see

Last year was a big year for spider mites on the back porch. I managed to keep them somewhat under control (nothing actually died) by mixing a few drops of dishwashing liquid into a spray bottle and spraying the little SOBs. It was easy enough to do on a warm day, except for the eight foot brugmansia which required a ladder and an hour of spraying. The process had to be repeated about once a month through the winter, and I never achieved total victory.

Dallas Red is a hummingbird favorite? In my garden they visit Miss Huff and Radiation, but they don't seem that serious about it. Their visits seemed more of a courtesy call. The same thing is true of things like verbena bonariensis. Sometimes I wonder why I bother to overwinter lantana at all. They are now readily available at most nurseries, reasonably priced, and often grow better than the ones I've kept.

Penny, when are you going to put that 1000 square foot greenhouse out back? You know, the two story one with the fountain and paved walks. This is not to disrespect your kitchen which seems to produce lots of goodies. But if ever anyone deserved one, it would be you.

Last year was the first year I'd ever overwintered anything successfully in my basement, a datura (potted). Unfortunately my florida room freezes; just a few times since we've been here, cans of soda had exploded, and my Million Bells never made it. I'm going to try cuttings (which I'm not good at either) of my B&B Salvia and dig up a late sprouting Salvia "Forest Fire", just to see if I can do it.

Forest Fire is a salvia coccinea isn't it? It would be much easier to collect seeds and plant them in the spring.

Black & Blue Salvia is pretty tough - most of mine stay in the ground all winter. A pot of them in your florida room would likely survive even if a short freeze killed them to the ground. It seems unlikely that the soil in the pot would freeze solid, so the plant would probably sprout sometime in March or April as the room warms up. It is actually better if they are not too far along when you plant them out in the spring. The three foot plants that I've set out in May have all been more or less damaged by spring winds.

Thanks wardw! I do have a B&B in a pot that I'll just bring in then, but I'm also going to try cuttings. I have one in the ground, outside the florida room, that I'll leave be and see if it comes back. I'm not a fan of mulching, and that bed gets little protection and little direct sun, so that B&B may be history.

The "Forest Fire" is very easy to grow from seed, but I'm just going to dig it up for the heck of it.

Carol,
Last year I did have a problem in late winter with white fly on the plants that were in the living room but I kept them under control with homemade traps and by taking them outside on days when it was about 32 for about an hour or two. On days when it got into the 40's I actually hosed the plants off with cold water and it didn't harm them at all. The plants that were in the kitchen were bug free perhaps because of the increased humidity from cooking, and dishwashing etc. I also grow cannas from seed. I winter sow the seeds in March and put the containers outside until they germinate naturally and they bloom beautifully.

Ward I do so need a greenhouse don't I LOL! Last winter my kitchen actually did look more like a green house than a kitchen. If I can ever convince my DH to redo our south facing front porch, I would be able to enclose it in winter and use it as a green house. Now if this little hummer that is still here at my place doesn't leave my DH said he would consider enclosing and heating the front porch for her and then I will have a makeshift greenhouse too where I will be able to keep all my good hummer stuff!

Penny

Wait a minute, he's willing to go to all that trouble for a hummingbird, and not for you? Oh yes, I forgot that most important word, consider. When I received my new-husband package of words and phrases (we all get one) there was quite a good discussion about the word "consider". As I recall it was defined as "visable thought without action until the issue is long forgotten". So the book wasn't perfect, and was obviously written by a man. Whereas for men TIME = FORGETFULNESS, it is demonstrably not true for women.

Sorry, I'm having one of those day it seems. And just to stay on topic, my winter-in-the-ground B&Bs have looked terrible all year - ugly yellow leaves and *%^ looking flowers. My wife thinks that freshly grown cuttings may do better; maybe she is right. I'll consider it.

Penny,
A greenhouse with a hummingbird for the winter, that is a great thought. I still had one this morning so I guess I would send her for a short flight and yours could have company!

When you winter sow the cannas, when do they bloom? I tried some last year, but did't file or soak them and when I realized that I should have I decided to keep them inside. I will try outside next year because I saved a few seeds from this year's plants.
Carol

Carol
The cannas grown from seed bloom about two weeks or so later than the ones grown from rhizomes. At least that is how mine did this year. The ones I grew from seed I kept in containers so I would be able to keep them apart so I could compare. Next year my seed grown plants will be going in the ground.

Well Ward,
My little migrant did finally leave so DH is off the hook for this year anyway. Now if I did put up a green house, I would lose most of my garden space or more likely my DH grass space LOL! However another thought just came to me...I could enclose the entire back yard and turn the whole thing into a living green house during the winter! If I posed that to my DH, I know he would have me commited for sure.

Penny