Transitioning your Houseplants for Fall
Tips to Help your Plants Thrive Indoors
It may still be summer but now is the time to start thinking about transitioning your patio plants into house plants for the cooler season. You’ll want to move houseplants back inside before temperatures dip below 55°F (12.5°C) at night.
Clippings Floral Design provides their best tips on how to make the transition easy for you and your plants.
Compliments of Clippings Floral Design.
🍃 First thing is to start checking the weather, before you know it the night will become cool and next there will be frost. Make sure that you are well ahead and ready to bring your plants inside before this happens or you risk losing your plants to frost.
🍃 The best time to bring them in is when the outside temperatures are similar to your inside house temperatures. This will create less shock when you move them indoors.
🍃 Now that you have a plan in place, it’s time to debug your plants. They will inevitably have bugs from being outside all summer and you do not want to bring them inside with your plants!
🍃 Firstly, rinse your plants with water from the hose. The water pressure should be high enough to dislodge bugs and dirt, but not hard enough to damage the leaves. Check the leaves, stems and soil for visible pests, if you see any spray the plant down with insecticidal soap to remove all remaining insects and eggs.
🍃 Next you will need to clean the soil. Fill a large bucket with water and 1 tablespoon of Dawn dish liquid. Remove the plant from the pot if possible and dunk the soil/roots into the soapy water for a few minutes; then remove and allow to drain. Then rinse with clean water. While that is draining, wash your pot with soapy water before repotting. If the plant can’t be removed, drench the soil/roots in the pot with the soap mixture until it runs through the drainage holes. Then repeat with clean water.
🍃 Once you bring your plant inside you may need to add supplemental lighting until your plant adjusts to the lower light levels in your house.
Now your plants will be happy and cozy for the long winter ahead.