Chicago fig and geraniums can probably take a chilly night or two. I know begonias don't like cold, I brought in my Immense a couple weeks ago before the first below 50 night here. Most house plants are tropicals and don't like it chilly either. Some ivy and succulents can take cold, some don't like it down in the 40's.

Try looking up your plants and use the term "cold tolerance".

pull the cars out of the garage... put them all in there ....

get some systemic bug killer... treat all pots at once ... and leave them out in the garage.. until the stink goes away ...

im sure.. in an attached garage.. you have at least 3 weeks if not 6 weeks.. before they would show frost damage inside the garage ...

just keep the door closed as much as possible .... especially in the evening.. retain whatever heat built up in there ...

the cement floor.. is a great heat sink ... it will not get freezing cold. until almost december i bet ... and heat will build on sunny days if the re are windows.. or the roof is exposed to direct sun ...

in late spring.. the converse is true.. that darn cement floor stays very cold almost until july ...

if you dont have a cement floor.. ignore the above parts regarding such ...

ken

Plants that I have that match yours that I don't bring in until it's going to go below 40:

Rex begonias – the rhizomatous ones (rhizomes are hardy here, but the current years' leaves are not)

Cane begonias – Dragon wing, Angel wing, and other types (same as rhizomatous, roots often survive repeated frosts)

Succulents including Jade plants (not all succulents are equal in any kind of tolerance, heat, cold, humidity, but yes to Jade, assuming Crassula ovata. Can take a slight frost w/o any effect on foliage, but try to plan ahead so you haven't just watered. Cold + dry = survivable. Cold + wet could = rotting roots.)

Croton (assuming Codiaeum variegatum)

Arboricola (assuming Schefflera arboricola)

Citrus- Meyer lemon (I don't have but people do have lemon trees around here)

Rubber Tree (Ficus elastica)

Chicago Hardy Fig (will lose leaves and go dormant)

Tradescantia zebrina aka wandering dude

Geraniums (assuming you mean Pelargonium)

Algerian ivy (assuming Hedera algeriensis)

Swedish ivy (assuming Plectranthus verticillata)

Elephant ears (assuming Colocasia esculenta - will lose leaves & go dormant just a few degrees below 40, which is a good thing if you are going to store it dormant anyway - makes a poor houseplant over winter, attracts spider mites)

A sizable potted fig tree (including Chicago Hardy) will be fine through a substantial freeze.

Mine don't come indoors until temps have gotten well down into the 20s, ensuring that leaves will fall (or be easily stripped off so there isn't a mess indoors. My larger ones are kept in an unheated garage all winter, with supplemental heat provided only when outdoor temperatures fall below the mid to upper teens.

Tropical houseplants generally survive temps down to 40 or so quite well, but the most cold-sensitive ones can sustain substantial demage below 45F. I once had a potted Strophanthus preussii that died when the temp dropped into the low 40s.

Temps below 55*F have an impact on most tropical plant's ability to carry on photosynthesis; so, when they are allowed to get that cold, they switch from photosynthate (the plant's true food is sugar/ glucose, the product of photosynthesis) currently being made to their energy reserves. A very good analogy would be when the lights go out and rely on a battery powered device, the amount of stored energy is not limitless. Such is true of a plant's energy reserves, they are finite. Too, when most tropicals are exposed to temps that affect their ability to carry on photosynthesis, when the temperature rises into a more favorable range they don't immediately regain their full ability to carry on photosynthesis/ make food from CO2 and the sun's light energy light energy. The process often takes several days at favorable temperatures for the plant's full food-making ability to be fully restored.

So, there is not much of a problem if the temperature drop is slow and we're only asking the plant to tolerate a day or two of chill below 50* or so; however, a week or more of low temps is a tax on energy reserves the plant relies on while growing indoors during the dark months. This leaves the plant less equipped to deal with adversities that require the plant to expend more energy, and is limiting to the plants ability to deal with conditions near/ at/ beyond the limits it's programmed to tolerate.

It should be noted that a sudden temperature drop can cause chill injury at temps if the change is sharp enough. If a plant growing at 75* is moved to a cold room or porch, chill injury can occur at temps as high as 55*F if the change is rapid. The sudden change caused phenolic compounds in plant cells to leak from the cells into intercellular spaces, which can damage tissues. Symptoms of damage are water-soaked lesions that often turn black and spongy before turning brown and crispy as the liquid evaporates from leaked contents. As noted, this can occur when ambient temperatures are far above the freezing mark.

The take-away: That some plants are able to tolerate unfavorably cold temperatures shouldn't be taken to mean cold temperatures don't exact a toll in the form of negative consequences, even if the toll is inconspicuous.

Al

I don't really prioritize by species, I get all of the valuable potted things in the first night it gets below 45F and they stay in, IMO the in-and-out thing is for the birds. My garage has two modes- summer mode for gardening and winter mode with plant lights. It's a pain to switch around so I do it one day and done.

Once in a while I carry things outside for a day or two to enjoy the natural rain, but only the epiphytes- everything else is just fine waiting until spring. My staghorns are out in rain right now because they struggle most of all my plants during the winters.

The potted bulbs (EEs, caladiums, cannas, dahlias) wait until the foilage dies back then I'll gather and store them.

Cheap annuals in hanging baskets- ferns, petunias, impatiens, coleus- they all go into the compost bin, I'll buy new next year.

I can't afford to buy all new plants each year, so that is why I have so much experience saving as much as possible. Usually about 200 pots come into my house. It's not rare to see a particular Coleus once, and that's the last time I ever see it for sale, so I definitely try to keep favorite Coleus over winter. But I didn't put it on my list above because it freaks out if it is exposed much to temps that start with 4 or below.

I'm not sure it's possible to generalize under the word "tropical." Many of the things mentioned are hardy to as low as Z8, which is far from tropical, so the cutoff is frozen roots for the Z8+ plants mentioned. But I'm not sure if Linnea's goal is mere survival and fresh spring growth, or present appearance preserved.

Figs (assuming F. carica) are hardy here, but not evergreen.

Tiffany..love to know how you store 200 pots..do you have a basement?..

I have 40 to 50 pots (haven't counted)..I have plants in 6 rooms..

Thank you! No basement, just a lot of cramming in about the same number of rooms, and a few in my office. Some winters I use a little shed but am planning to cram without it this winter since they're saying it's going to be so expensive for heat this winter. It doesn't take much heat to keep a small shed above freezing here on the frosty nights, most winters, but it could be a harsh winter, and I don't want to spend anything on it.

I did have a basement everywhere I lived in OH and used the basement(s) a lot, with shop lights & various shelves. A lot of the stuff I would keep in a basement in OH is hardy here, like elephant ears, Cannas, Gladiolus. Do you put some stuff in a basement?

For saucers, one can buy a pack of 50 plastic plates for well under $10. They're not as deep as the clear trays that are sold to go under pots, but it's not good to allow that much extra water in a saucer anyway. They only seem to only come in red, and can crack, but if you don't try to pick them up at the same time as a pot, they can last for a few winters.

I brought in 19 pots yesterday..they're dirty..full of dried leaves and ash tree seeds sigh..but I wanted to start bringing them in and didn't take the time to clean up..

I don't have a basement..overwintering plants in a basement would be great!..

I have a few bigger trolleys (rolling saucers) for the large pots with alocasias..

then last year I found smaller ones at Dollar Tree for $1 each..bought a full box of 24..8 ea of 3 colors (green, taupe and terra cotta)..

they take more space than just the pot but necessary for watering right?..

fyi..there's rocks in the snake plant pot..my attempt to keep them from leaning..it's not working 🙁..

Good looking plants! You have all winter to pull the dead leaves out of the pots if you want to. Agree, without saucers, it's much harder to water. I've killed plants that way, trying to make sure no extra came out of drain holes. I wish I had some of those wheelie trays for bigger plants. I've looked them, but always end up with another plant instead.

The 1 little rock I can see in a snake plant looks like a Twinkie from here. I have a Twinkie rock too, but mine has a bite out of it. I guess that makes it more cool since you can see the creamy filling. : ) I'm not sure your rock is big enough to brace Sans from leaning. They look nicely upright. Did wind cause a lean? Repotting?

I'm surprised you still have ash trees.

Say I pot up my geraniums (pelargonium) and bring them in and keep them alive, how long can these things live? And say I replant them outside next spring, do they look appreciably better than, say, a little one I buy at the store would? How big can these get? I'm curious now

thanks Tiffany..the wheeled saucers are very convenient..they're great to easily move a big pot....I mentioned the rock because I noticed how hideous it looks! Lol..the snake plants had a slight lean when repotted this summer but now they lean more 🙁..maybe I need another repot..squirrels are part of the problem..I've read leaning can be an issue with these..

I have ash trees because we treated them..$$$ costly but we did it..couldn't face losing them..

Pelargonium can live for several years. I've been using citronella, and I had a rose one for a few years. I have kept a couple in pots for mothers, and in later winter I'll trim them up for cuttings to make a round for planting out in the gardens. They can get quite tall and leggy in the winter if they have low sunlight, and fairly bushy in the summer out in the gardens. They get about 18' wide and about that tall in a good summer. The ones I keep in pots tend to be a tad smaller during the summer. I've pulled them right out of the gardens in the fall and tossed them in a bucket in the enclosed porch and had them survive fine to take cuttings from for next year. Not optimal, but shows how hardy they can be so long as they don't get too cold. Right now I have 6 small ones in an 18" flowerbox pot, and those will do well through the winter and I'll get plenty of cuttings for the gardens next year.

These are expensive around here, usually 3-5 bucks each for the smaller ones when they come out at the nurseries. I tend to like to have a couple dozen or so around the gardens in the summer, so I save myself quite a bit by not needing to buy new plants each summer.

I pull my potted pelargonium inside when the temps are going to be falling below 50's. Before chill damage can start stunting them down. They coast out in the 40's out in the porch most of the winter, but if it gets too much time below fridge temps out there for some spells I pull the pot inside for a while.

I've saved them sporadically throughout the years and they can get much bigger as they get older. I pulled 2 inside last winter and 1 croaked but the one that survived started blooming again very early, more than a month before I took plants back outside. That was the most fun part for me, having the blooms in the house. It was right by a S window.

I got about 6 more this spring. One of few plants that I have that actually seems to prefer winter. When it got really hot, all of my plants quit blooming and lost almost all leaves. Most of them still look alive and starting to grow some foliage back now that it has cooled off.

@linnea56 (zone 5b Chicago) How is it going? Did you get any frost?