Trimming houseplants
 

I brought all my houseplants inside for the winter (zone 5) and they
are huge. Can I trim them back because I don't have the room to keep
them all?

Thanks
Lori

Trimming houseplants
 

"kayla" afwt_hotmail.com@ wrote in message
...
I brought all my houseplants inside for the winter (zone 5) and they
are huge. Can I trim them back because I don't have the room to keep
them all?

Thanks
Lori

Depends on what kind they are.

Trimming houseplants
 

kayla afwt_hotmail.com@ wrote in news:qe47h3p4crpsasg6jcsbq26stfv76ifviv@
4ax.com:

I brought all my houseplants inside for the winter (zone 5) and they
are huge. Can I trim them back because I don't have the room to keep
them all?

Thanks
Lori

What sort of houseplants?

Trimming houseplants
 

If they are woody plants here are some suggestions on pruning.

Tree Pruning
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/tree_pruning


--
Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Consulting Arborist
http://home.ccil.org/~treeman
and www.treedictionary.com
Beware of so-called tree experts who do not understand tree biology.
Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions keep reminding us
that we are not the boss.

Trimming houseplants
 

I have forthysia, hybiscus, & datura.


On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:20:54 +0000 (UTC), FragileWarrior
wrote:

kayla afwt_hotmail.com@ wrote in news:qe47h3p4crpsasg6jcsbq26stfv76ifviv@
4ax.com:

I brought all my houseplants inside for the winter (zone 5) and they
are huge. Can I trim them back because I don't have the room to keep
them all?

Thanks
Lori

What sort of houseplants?

Trimming houseplants
 

kayla afwt_hotmail.com@ wrote in
:

I have forthysia, hybiscus, & datura.

forthysia isn't a houseplant. it needs cold to bloom.
what type of hybiscus? tropical or hardy? do you know it's Latin
name?
i'm not going to comment on datua. i have cats & a kid. datura
ingestion is rapidly fatal.
lee

Trimming houseplants
 

Well I guess I will leave the datura outside for the winter and hope
for some seedlings in the spring. The forsthysia is a perennial which
I am trying to keep living over the winter. I'm in zone 5.
The hybiscus is a tropical plant.
Thanks.

Lori

On Sat, 27 Oct 2007 16:29:37 +0000 (UTC), enigma
wrote:

kayla afwt_hotmail.com@ wrote in
:

I have forthysia, hybiscus, & datura.

forthysia isn't a houseplant. it needs cold to bloom.
what type of hybiscus? tropical or hardy? do you know it's Latin
name?
i'm not going to comment on datua. i have cats & a kid. datura
ingestion is rapidly fatal.
lee

Trimming houseplants
 

"kayla" afwt_hotmail.com@ wrote in message
...

Well I guess I will leave the datura outside for the winter and hope
for some seedlings in the spring. The forsthysia is a perennial which
I am trying to keep living over the winter. I'm in zone 5.
The hybiscus is a tropical plant.
Thanks.

Lori

The hybiscus (like many plants) will probably go through a period of
adjustment indoors, during which it'll complain, drop leaves, and generally
look awful. If it was healthy outdoors, it'll survive the winter indoors,
but don't try and force it into perfect health. It won't work. Back off on
the water, and don't fertilize at all until it goes outdoors again in the
spring and shows new growth. With less leaf surface, the plant can't process
as much water anyway.

Trimming houseplants
 

kayla afwt_hotmail.com@ wrote in
:


Well I guess I will leave the datura outside for the winter
and hope for some seedlings in the spring. The forsthysia
is a perennial which I am trying to keep living over the
winter. I'm in zone 5. The hybiscus is a tropical plant.
Thanks.

no, put the forsythia outside, in the ground (if just in a pot
it will freeze & die). forsythia do just fine in zone 5.
the datura is semi-tropical (zone 8 i think). it will not
survive outside over winter. i was just saying i won't grow
them as i consider them too poisonous for the limited beauty
of the flowers, but that's just my opinion.
the hibiscus should be fine, although it's quite likely to
drop leaves when you bring it indoors. if it's too big, you
can prune it. i wouldn't remove more than a third of it
though. in my experience, tropical hibiscus can be pretty
tough. i had one growing in my (old world) chamelion cage. it
was a 50 gallon fish tank with a maximum of 3" of soil on the
bottom. the hibiscus grew & thrived for over 10 years in
there, blooming every winter (well, it got buds. mostly Pooh
ate the buds before they opened, but every so often one would
make a huge red flower). i had to prune it to keep it fitting
in the tank, & it was under artificial lighting, but it lasted
until Pooh died. i killed it trying to get it into a regular
pot...
the datura & hibiscus will do lots better if you can get them
grow lights, or just a 2 bulb florescent fixture with one warm
white & one cool white bulbs. give them about 12 hours of
light.
lee

Trimming houseplants
 

"enigma" wrote in message
. ..
kayla afwt_hotmail.com@ wrote in
:


Well I guess I will leave the datura outside for the winter
and hope for some seedlings in the spring. The forsthysia
is a perennial which I am trying to keep living over the
winter. I'm in zone 5. The hybiscus is a tropical plant.
Thanks.

no, put the forsythia outside, in the ground (if just in a pot
it will freeze & die). forsythia do just fine in zone 5.
the datura is semi-tropical (zone 8 i think). it will not
survive outside over winter. i was just saying i won't grow
them as i consider them too poisonous for the limited beauty
of the flowers, but that's just my opinion.
the hibiscus should be fine, although it's quite likely to
drop leaves when you bring it indoors. if it's too big, you
can prune it. i wouldn't remove more than a third of it
though. in my experience, tropical hibiscus can be pretty
tough. i had one growing in my (old world) chamelion cage. it
was a 50 gallon fish tank with a maximum of 3" of soil on the
bottom. the hibiscus grew & thrived for over 10 years in
there, blooming every winter (well, it got buds. mostly Pooh
ate the buds before they opened, but every so often one would
make a huge red flower). i had to prune it to keep it fitting
in the tank, & it was under artificial lighting, but it lasted
until Pooh died. i killed it trying to get it into a regular
pot...
the datura & hibiscus will do lots better if you can get them
grow lights, or just a 2 bulb florescent fixture with one warm
white & one cool white bulbs. give them about 12 hours of
light.
lee

Right - Hibiscus is tough. A friend of mine was put here on earth to murder
plants, but no matter what she did to her hibiscus, she couldn't kill it.
How about 3 weeks in the hot sun with no water? Sure - why not. Then, 6
months in front of a heat vent with little or no water. In spring, she put
it outside, trimmed it right to the soil, and a month later, the plant was
rockin' and rollin'. Amazing.

I'm not so sure the artificial light is worthwhile, though. You can't come
close to duplicating sunlight without several thousand watts worth of bulbs.

Trimming houseplants
 

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in
:

I'm not so sure the artificial light is worthwhile, though.
You can't come close to duplicating sunlight without
several thousand watts worth of bulbs.

i dunno. my hibiscus was under 150 watt UVB lights... i have a
few dozen cactii & amaryllis indoors now under my grow lights.
even the weird things like the pomegranite don't lose leaves
here when i bring them in, because they go under the lights.
i have stupid windows (triple pane uv resistant, gas filled,
blah), so i don't get any usable light from outside anymore.
those damn windows completely eliminated the heat gain i was
getting from the sun in winter. save fuel? heh :p the furnace
runs more & i have to give the plants supplemental lighting.
i want a big metal halide lamp in my dining room :)
lee

Trimming houseplants
 

enigma expounded:

the datura is semi-tropical (zone 8 i think). it will not
survive outside over winter.

It is only hardy above the ground to zone 8, however, in my garden
some years they will resprout from the roots in the spring. You can
tell the difference from a seedling by the multiple shoots that'll
come up from the ground from overwintered roots vs. one shoot from a
seedling. The multiple shoots will usually bloom before a seedling.

As for poisonousness, it's true, but so are tomatoes. Not to
chastise, but to the rest - watch your children in the garden. Teach
them to not put anything in their mouths without parental permission.
There are many more plants out there than daturas and tomatoes that
are poisonous.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************

Trimming houseplants
 

Jangchub wrote in
:

Forsythia is cold hardy in your zone. If the hibiscus has
shiney foliage it is tropical and will not really do well
in the house. They are very prone to white fly indoors. I
don't know where the white fly comes from, but they do.

i had no problems with my tropical hybiscus for 10 years. no
white fly, no aphids, nothing. it grew like crazy & i had to
prune it severely at least twice a year to keep it contained.
however, my hybiscus was growing in a high humidity tropical
set up with my Hooded Chamelion. i was specificly aiming for a
particular temperature & humidity range suitable for Pooh. it
also seemed to be exactly what the hybiscus enjoyed too, which
was a bonus (nothing like seeing those huge red blooms when
you wake up in January).
then again, i've never had a problem with white flies ever &
i move plants in & out every year... i do wash them off when i
bring them in, but i don't repot unless they need it, or
fumigate the soil or use pesticides.
lee

Trimming houseplants
 

no, put the forsythia outside,

OMG!!!! How dumb can I be? It's not forthysia. It's fuchsia......
But speaking of forthysia...I do have one but it never blooms much. I
may get the odd single bloom here and there but that's it.

Lori


On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:36:45 +0000 (UTC), enigma
wrote:

no, put the forsythia outside,

Trimming houseplants
 

kayla afwt_hotmail.com@ wrote in
:

no, put the forsythia outside,

OMG!!!! How dumb can I be? It's not forthysia. It's
fuchsia...... But speaking of forthysia...I do have one but
it never blooms much. I may get the odd single bloom here
and there but that's it.

ok, that makes lots more sense. do you have good light & a way
to make the air inside reasonably humid (at least 50%)? i've
kept fuchsias over winter but they didn't do much the
following years.
lee