Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Brrrrrr ~




The autumn wind is howling and the leaves are begining to cover the ground. The temperatures are really dropping quickly and I'm afraid the frost will attack before I have a chance to pull up the plants I want to winterize indoors. If it will just wait until my day off on Friday... I want to try something different w/ my geraniums. I read that if you pull them up, shake off the soil, cut them back to about 6"and place them in a paper lunch bag ~ that you can keep them for next spring. You just need to keep them in a cool, dry place. They go dormant and in the spring will start to show signs of growth, just in time to replant! Geraniums aren't my favorite of annuals but they are very colorful and keep blooming all season long. I also purchased a shell plant that I want to try to salvage for next year. It's a vine that gets purple shell-like blooms. I'll have to cut it way back ~ it's climbing up the rainspout! I started it on a 4 foot trellis and placed it in the corner hoping it would do just that!!! I'll bring it inside and try shining a growing light on it for 6-8 hours a day and see what happens. My daughter will be moving out soon :( and my son will be moving into her much bigger and brighter room, so... I get to turn his old room into a growing/craft room. Besides gardening, I also enjoy scrapbooking , photography, drawing, and cake decorating. It'll be nice to have a place to organize everything!


I think I'd better go rescue this plant in case we do have frost tonight. My house is going to look like a jungle until I get the room ready ~ my boyfriend will love that!!!
G-night,
Jeni

2 comments:

  1. Hey Jenn! The vine is called a snail vine (unofficial name, of course!) We grew this in Arizona on our wood fences. It went absolutely nuts! It was very hardy and fast growing. I didn't realize it could be grown back here. Is it considered an annual?
    Hope you were able to get your plants in before the rain hit today. I cleaned up the yard yesterday... I filled 8 compost bags, 3 trashcans and had about 9 bundles of pompas grass! Yard waste pick up is Saturday. I hope they take it all!
    Love ya!
    Theresa

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Theresa! Sounds like you've been working hard. I had a few of your chunks of pompas grass that did fairly well. None of them grew very large this year but I have a feeling that next year they will do very well. My climbing shell vine is doing great. (See my next post for photos!) I read up on it and it recommends bringing it in and treating it as a house plant during the colder months. I'm glad I planted it in a pot! Thanks for checking in!
    XO
    Jen

    ReplyDelete

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