Moving Tropical Container Plants Indoors
All my tropical plants are now safely stored indoors for the winter.
Caring for my precious plants means following a strict schedule, particularly at the end of the warm season. Plants that summer at Skylands, my home in Maine, are picked up and brought back to Bedford for storage. And together with all the tropical specimens here at the farm, everything is groomed, organized, and placed in special greenhouses where temperature and humidity levels can be closely monitored and adjusted when necessary. Some of the taller plants are also stored in my stable. It's a multiple day process, but my team does a great job getting it all done.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Every year, I evaluate the needs of my plants and decide where they will be stored for the winter months. Plants grow, so they cannot always be stored in the same place. I’ve stored a few plants in the stable before, but this year, I’ll store a group of 13 container specimens including several tree ferns. Here, they will get lots of light from the barn door windows and still be protected from winds and freezing temperatures.
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- Before any container plant is stored, I always remind the crew that it should be weeded and properly groomed.
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- Many of the plants can be transported by hand truck. Pete carefully wheels in another smallish tree fern. Tree ferns are arborescent ferns that grow with a trunk elevating the fronds above ground level, making them trees.
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- Tree fern fronds are often very large. Some of them can reach nine to 13 feet in length. The fronds are thickly textured and range in color from gray-green to blue.
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- As the plants are brought into the stable, they are all arranged with enough space in between them, so they don’t touch. Keeping them separated prevents any diseases that could possibly spread during the storage time. Fortunately, all my plants are in excellent condition. Ryan checks all the plant foliage – and no two plants are touching.
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- These plants will do well in this location and will be checked every day. These are also safe to have around my horses. In fact, they have been caught trying to munch on the non-toxic fronds.
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- Meanwhile, another team is repotting the bird’s nest ferns, Asplenium nidus, outside what I call the tropical hoop house. Some of these have outgrown their pots, or they were in decorative pots that needed to cleaned and stored.
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- The bird’s nest fern is known for its fronds that grow out of a rosette in the middle of the plant which closely resembles a bird’s nest. It is also occasionally called a crow’s nest fern.
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- Phurba removes the plant from its old pot. Repotting is a good time to also check any plant for damaged, unwanted or rotting leaves as well as any pests that may be hiding in the soil.
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- He trims necessary bottom leaves and then gives the root ball some beneficial scarifying cuts. Asplenium nidus forms large simple fronds growing up to 20 to 59 inches long. They are light green, often crinkled, with a black midrib.
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- The selected new pot is filled about two thirds of the way with potting soil. We’re using Miracle-Gro Indoor Potting Mix, specifically formulated for container plants.
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- And we’re also using Miracle-Gro Shake ‘n Feed all-purpose plant food.
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- Phurba fills in the pot with more soil, but he never overfills – only place potting mix until the bottom of the pot’s rim, so the soil does not spill out when it is watered. This also makes it much easier to lift and carry.
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- As they are repotted, Phurba places them on a shelf in the hoop house where they will remain for the next seven months.
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- This is one of my many sago palms, Cycas revoluta. Sago is a popular plant known for its feathery foliage and ease of care. This very symmetrical plant supports a crown of shiny, dark green leaves on a thick shaggy trunk that is typically about seven to eight inches in diameter, sometimes wider.
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- These are where the old leaves were cut. The rough, symmetrical trunk becomes leafless as it ages.
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- Another plant in my tropical greenhouse is Bird of Paradise, Strelitzia nicolai – a species of evergreen tropical herbaceous plant with gray-green leaves that grow up to 18-inches long out of a main crown in a clump. The leaves are paddle shaped, similar to banana plant leaves, and attached to a long, upright stalk.
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- These are Australian Brush Cherry trees, Eugenia myrtifolia, also now known as Syzygium paniculatum. The Brush Cherry is an evergreen tree or shrub with shiny dark green leaves native to Australia and New Zealand. I usually display these topiaries in the courtyard behind my Winter House kitchen during summer.
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- The foliage of philodendrons is usually green but may be coppery, red, or purplish with parallel leaf veins that are green or sometimes red or white. Shape, size, and texture of the leaves vary considerably, depending on species and maturity of the plant. I have many philodendrons that are growing so well here at my farm.
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- This tropical house is full, but none of the plants are touching, and there is just enough room for me to walk in and around the entire structure. All the greenhouses are checked a couple times each day to make sure the temperature remains comfortably warm inside. Too cold, plants will freeze – too hot, plants will rot. To simulate the best subtropical environment, we try to keep the temperature in this greenhouse between 50 and 85-degrees Fahrenheit with some humidity. They’ll continue to thrive here until they are brought outdoors again in spring. Are your plants inside?
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