4 Tips for Bringing Plants Indoors for Winter in Springfield, MO
As the nights get colder and colder, you find yourself spending more time wondering how your plants are going to survive those freezing temperatures when winter arrives in Springfield. Bringing plants indoors to help them survive those frigid temperatures may sound easy, but conditions just aren’t the same as they were outside this summer. There are many factors to consider when you are bringing plants indoors for late fall and winter. Here are our tips to keep your plants healthy and happy inside this season:
1. When To Move
How early is too early? How late is too late? A good rule of thumb is to move your plants indoors when the nighttime temperatures are consistently below 60 degrees.
2. How To Choose
Indoor conditions in the winter often have low humidity, dry heat and low light. Not all plants will thrive in that atmosphere. So, before you make the move indoors for the winter, you need to decide which ones should come in.
If you have a plant that's struggling, it may not adjust well to the new conditions. Choose healthy plants, or plants you love. If you have tropical or subtropical plants, these are the best picks to move indoors. Here are a few plants that should make a healthy transition indoors:
- Ferns
- Lilies
- Aloe
- Yucca
- Bird of paradise
- Sansevieria
- Peperomia
3. Bringing Plants In
First, wash the plants off so you don’t bring any insects inside with you. Make sure that the pot isn’t damaged and that it has draining holes for when you water.
Then, find a bright, sunny area. South facing windows often do well for plants in the winter. If you can’t find good natural sunlight, you can buy growlights (online or at your local garden center) to help supplement what little sunlight you can give your plants. When looking for a place for your plants to live indoors, you should also take note of where the air vents are - you don’t want your plants sitting right below where your heater.
4. Water Sparingly
One of the most common mistakes people make in this transition is overwatering the plants. Your plants don’t need as much water in the winter as they do during the summer, especially not when they are outdoors. If your leaves are looking dry, with brown tips or leaves falling off, you may need to consider a humidifier or misting the plants to provide them with more moisture.
You don’t need to fertilize again until about a month before you’re ready to move them back outside. You need to do this carefully too, so when you start moving them back outdoors, start slow and build your way up until a full day of sunlight and outdoor time.
Check out our Springfield lawn care page to see how we can help your plants thrive.