OK, I know neither of these is winter hardy here (and I am not certain of the spelling of the common names), but the plants are amazing and giving an incredible display. The question is, can I keep them going by transplanting into smaller pots (there are four to five plants in each of two large pots) and bring them inside? How long can they be kept going? Must either have a period of dormancy? If so, it wouldn't be hard to keep them at a relatively contant four degrees Celcius. But if I can keep them as houseplants, either during the winters or possibly even all year long, that would be terrific!
I guess this reduces to two questions: 1) what to do to overwinter these plants, and 2) can they be kept as houseplants during part, or all, of the year, and if so how.
I have been overwintering my impatiens as house plants for the past two years with great success.
I just scoop them into big plant pots with a bunch of wood chips and soil taken from where they are planted and keep them by a SE facing sliding glass door.
I had one 2 foot wide salmon impatiens flower dramatically all last winter until it got mites in early spring. I then put it outside where it got lightly frosted in our late frost. So I broke off almost all the damaged branches, and to my surprise it grew back nice and thick by June. It's in a pot on the deck right now and will probably spend the winter by the door again.
I overwintered one of those rose-like double impatiens for two years. It dropped all its blooms when inside each year, but filled out nicely when I put it in a sunny spot in my garden. (Turns out, this double impatiens doesn't like shade.) Since it doesn't flower, I just put it on the floor by the sliding glass door where it gets enough light to stay alive.
I haven't grown nonstop begonias this year. But I have read that you should cut back keep the nonstop begonias and treat the roots like you would dahlias and that is what I plan to do. This is the first year I've raised them.
BTW, I was sold two different kinds of flowers as "nonstop begonias". The one looks just like a Reiger begonia, and I suspect that is what it is. That one will work as a houseplant but will eventually run out of blooms. The other is a big guy with large flowers and that is the one I believe needs to be wintered in the basement in peat.
There is one catch, though, and that is I have only had one Dahlia, and I had to give it away at the end of the first year I had it in because it turned out to be huge, overshadowing everything else in the garden. Therefore, I have never attempted to over winter them either. What do you do with Dahlias?
I found these links interesting. I too am diabetic, and I developed a product to help with meal planning for folk like us (and indeed for anyone with diet related health issues). Could I ask you to visit my website, and then contact me by email. I am sure few gardeners would want to watch a dialog about health issues related to diet and the use of diet to minimize risk; at least not in this forum.
Thanks again,
Ted
R.E. (Ted) Byers, Ph.D., Ed.D. R & D Decision Support Solutions
What I did with my dahlias (which were small and pathetic last year as I'd planted them in a spot that was far too shady) was to wait until after the frost, then cut off the withered foliage and put them in a box filled with peat and store them in the basement where the temperature stays in the mid-50s.
In late-April (which really was too early) I divided them and potted the divided roots in potting soil, taking them outside when the weather was above freezing and bringing them in at night and they grew huge. All the miserable looking withered roots that I figured would do nothing sprouted energetically. It was quite heartening.
Unfortunately, we had a late frost, which set them way, way back, but they mostly grew back and my garden was jam packed with big, healthy dahlias by mid-July.
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