Moving plants indoors to overwinter
After a long, luxurious summer season on the patio, the saddest day in a house plant’s life is when it is dragged back indoors before the first frost. I imagine it’s similar to how I feel when forced to return from vacation. All I want to do is lounge under a beach umbrella and live my best life, like the indirect sun–loving monstera that I am, when all that’s waiting at home for me is laundry and dinner chores. (And my kids, of course.)
I’m empathetic to each house plant’s inevitable winter depression. After all, even the sunniest spot in your home is still substantially darker than the shadiest spot outdoors. So, when they wilt in spirit, I wilt. I understand that when their soil dries out more quickly, it’s because the furnace is on. (The amount of lotion I use in winter is embarrassing.) But I have less compassion when it comes to one thing: the bugs.
Are bugs inevitable?
Although I know in my heart that insects are a part of nature and life, I despise the creepy-crawly pests that come in each fall. Every summer, I promise myself I will be proactive about debugging the house plants. But the first frost almost always sneaks up on me, and I call my entire family to line up like a fire brigade to help me get the plants indoors before they die.
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But last fall, I was on it. First, I filled a large tub with 9 parts water and 1 part gentle dish soap. Then I dunked each plant in the tub one by one, soaking the entire pot and as many of the leaves as would fit. After all the plants had been dunked, I sprayed them well with water, carefully rinsing the leaves’ undersides to remove any excess soap or well-hidden critters. Later, after they had dried, I sprayed each house plant down with neem oil before bringing them into the sunroom to acclimate. What a responsible plant owner I am!
I’ll be honest: With the ridiculous number of house plants I have, this process took a bit of time. But I had far fewer insects making a break for it in my house than in years past, and every plant was happy to get a good soak and bath after a long summer outside. Maybe next year I’ll invite some friends and make a party out of it. Who wants to join me?
One of Jamie’s biggest flexes is that her two adult children have become proud plant parents. Nothing is more satisfying than chatting about propagation stations and hitting up a new plant store with your kids while visiting them.
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Illustration generated with Adobe Firefly from the prompt, “a monstera house plant soaking in a galvanized washtub"
