This could be a problem. I’m obsessing about my little cuttings rooting under the shoplight in the garage. They’re the goodies I snipped from Michael Bowell’s garden in early October, and as the outside garden dies back and bores me the indoor garden takes over. This is supposed to be my “winter garden”, not my “overwintering cuttings garden”.
I fired up the indoor garden early this year to give the cuttings a good chance at surviving. Don’t they look promising?
Maybe Santa will bring me another shoplight.
The cuttings went into a tiny bit of rooting powder, a loose sandy potting soil, and then sat on the cozy warm heating mat which I got last winter. They seem to like it, I just have to figure out when I can remove the mat. The spotted begonia leaf and the yellow elephant ear are favorites. The elephant ear was just a tiny root nub which had a little bud on it, I hope by next year it’s a couple feet tall!
Oh the optimism of a new season 🙂
sorta like suburbia 
Is your garage heated? Do you have your light on a timer? That Elephant Ear should be quite something next year!
I feel fancy saying it, but yes the garage is heated. It stays around fifty most of the winter and is great for overwintering things that can suffer through a few months of dim light. The room just off the garage where the light is sits next to a small furnace room. If I leave the door open, enough heat escapes to keep it above freezing too.
The light is on a timer, and I’ll need to move the plants and light into the house once it gets too cold out there.
Oh, one of *those* people are you, with your fancy-schmancy, high-class heated garage, eh? (Hope you know I’m teasing!) I have a similar set-up in my basement, with lights and a heat mat, but I need to get a timer since I tend to forget to go down there every day to turn the lights on and off. Right now I have reminders set on my phone, but they are SO easy to ignore! I’m wintering some of the geraniums under the lights down there because I just don’t have room in the house for them all. I know people talk about letting them dry out in dark storage over the winter and bringing them back to life in the spring, but I have not had luck with that.
On an unrelated note, I grew two Cannas in pots on my porch this year. Do you think I can just winter them over in the basement right in the pots, or should I dig them up?
Good to hear someone being positive about the onset of winter! Love that begonia leaf!
There’s so much to keep me busy until the new year, and then just a few weeks and the first snowdrops will be sprouting. What’s not to like!?
…. Oh wait, I forgot about the snow 🙂
Your cuttings are all looking really healthy – here’s hoping you get your Christmas wish!
Thanks! And if Santa doesn’t come through I may just crack open the wallet anyway 🙂
They look very promising, Frank. I have a heater in my potting shed/greenhouse, but it costs too much to keep it running all winter. I fire it up for the flats of annuals I start in spring. Would love a set-up like yours. P. x
Thanks! But I have to say your setup sounds much better 🙂
I’m hoping to someday end up with a glasses in area for spring seed starting. Even if I don’t start the seeds it would be great to have a comfortable, sunny spot to anticipate spring in.
How exciting. I hope they all do well. It is sad that your garden outside is boring you though. Haven’ t you got any autumn treasures to enjoy outside?
I suppose there are a few attractive things out there, but definitely a shortage of berries and evergreens. I was looking online at conifers, but I’m not sure I’m ready to commit to that addiction .
These should be fun to tend over the winter. That spotted begonia is really something.
I love my little spotted begonia cutting! I hope it does as well as my other angel wing begonias.
I think the cuttings will give you as much pleasure as your little indoor garden, seeing something you’ve had a hand in taking the cutting really gives a sense of achievement even if in truth the plant has done all the work. ENJOY!
I am enjoying 🙂
I used to keep a bunch of house plants when I was younger, Seems I forgot all about that until now!
The cuttings look great. You will have some beautiful plants for next year and something to enjoy while it snows outside.
I hope so. I’ve been known to forget about plants for weeks, and when it doesn’t rain indoors there’s no backup plan for when I forget to water…. So there are no guarantees for next year yet.
Enjoy your winter. Snow outside and cozy plants indoors. I usually tend some too. Weather turned here a bit, but I think we are still a bit warm in the upper 50’s. I did bring in all my herbs and it is time to take cuttings for the kitchen garden.
We saw a dusting of snow in the upper elevations this weekend, but I agree it’s been a nice drawn out fall. Now that it’s finally rained it’s nice to be able to transplant at will!
My greenhouse is full of cuttings and I’m delighted! It fills me with hope and joy for the new season already. The begonia looks like some exotic animal! Pinched a cutting of an unknown plant the othere day…couldn’t identify it up to now. Violet flowers and yellow berries on a huge shrub – remains to be seen if it can be grown from a cutting at all, fingers crossed (for Santa too 😉 )
Hi Annette!
I’m glad to hear you had time to fill up on cuttings, they’re such a nice reminder of summer in addition to being such hope for the new year…. and I think most gardeners are always thinking of the new year even before the old is finished!
Someone just got a gift certificate from the DIY store. Santa may visit early 😉
Frank
I have a bunch of coleus cuttings I need to keep happy this winter. They’re destined for a spot under my seed lights or maybe just a sunny window. No room here for a greenhouse. 😦
No greenhouse here either…. me must carry on through our suffering!
Actually by February my coleus will become poster children for suffering, they’re nearly leafless and on the verge of death as they wait for warmer times.