Hi All,

Summary: Can flowering tropical plants survive with 24 hours of light followed by 24 hours of darkness?

Details: I am a newbie to this forum and so I am just finding my way around the site. But I am also lazy. But more than that I am frugal. We have some lovely tropical flowering plants in pots that we decided to bring in this winter (in Chicago) rather than buy new next spring. Unfortunately,the only place we could find for them is in the basement. They do get a little light each day through a couple of north facing block windows. And since I would rather not go down every morning to turn on the fluorescent lights in the room they are in and turn it off at night, I decided to turn it on one day and off the next. But some days I forget and so they may end up with 72 hours of light or 72 hours of "darkness". The room is kept at about 65 F. What do you think? Will they survive the winter and spring to life like they were last summer once I bring them out to our patio when the nights aren't so cold? Do I need to be more diligent to ensure they don't see those 72 hours of light?

Thanks in advance for your advice.
Grace and Peace,
John

PS: I am sure the answer to this is somewhere on this website. But I have looked 30 minutes and besides I said that I am lazy.