EasyBloom Forum

If, as is the case with all my plants, there is not enough sun light due to the position of our house and south facing windows (1 total) how do I keep my plants alive through the winter? They are all dying!

Hey Kadra...So, do you have any windows on the southwest side of the house, or maybe the western side to get some late afternoon sun? Also, I assume that your plants are evergreen perennials and not deciduous perennials or annuals. If they're deciduous or annuals, their looking as though they are dying off would be completely natural. This may be the case, but I bet that you have evergreens that need light during winter too.

One option would be to install supplemental lights inside. You can purchase lighting from a hydroponics retailer or online that are specifically made for helping plants grow. Unfortunately, this is expensive and having a bunch of grow lights in your house may not flow with the decor of the home. :)

It is entirely possible that your plants just cannot take the combination of your local winters and/or the overwintering conditions you are able to provide. Some plants can withstand a winter of low light. These plants will look poor and grow little, but once you take them back outside in spring they will come back to life. Not all plants can survive this. By chance can you tell me where you generally live and which plants you are overwintering?

Just an FYI. My training and education is in horticulture, and I too try to grow plants outside of their zone or light requirements. I live in Northern California outside of San Francisco and I am trying to grow a Plumeria. Plumerias are the flowers that are typically used in Hawaiian leis, which give you a sense of what type of climate Plumerias thrive in. The San Francisco Bay Area does not have a similar climate to Hawaii and yet I still try to grow this plant. Right now it is way too cold where I live for my Plumeria to thrive. Luckily for me, I have access to a greenhouse where I can overwinter my Plumeria. I just wanted to point out that even those of us who "should" know better still try to grow things out of their zone and light ranges. :)

Thanks for your answers so far. I live in NE Iowa and the plants that are doing the worst are my rubber tree plant that just dropped its last leaf off, Hawaiian Anthurium which is just hanging on, and an african violet which looks terrible and wilted. We live in a middle townhouse so that eliminates any windows on the east or west sides of the house and being so far north, our north facing windows don't get any light. In fact, it takes weeks longer for the snow to melt on that side of the house than the south side. So that leaves 1 window on the second floor that faces south that gets any sun at all during the day. I just don't know what to do. I have thought about those lights you talked about but for the very reasons you brought up, I hesitate. Any more thoughts you have would be much appreciated! Thanks.

I also am intrigued by what you said about taking the plants outside in the summer. I have always just kept them inside and because the sun is increased during the summer they do just fine inside. My whole goal is to have plants that look nice that I can have as houseplants inside to help purify the air inside our home.

Another note on my rubber tree, I got it in the late summer of 2008 so it did survive one winter before this one. Although what really baffles me is that I just left it in our living room that winter under one of the north facing windows. It didn't grow any bigger during that time but it didn't drop all its leaves either. It was when I got the Easy Bloom and found out more about the plant and its needs, namely the sunlight requirements, that I moved it to the office by the 1 south facing window. Also now that all the leaves have dropped off, I am not sure whether it is even still alive at all. The stems that are left are not green at all anymore. I have watched them turn a brown/black color that has creeped up the stems and subsequently then the leaves on those stems fell off.

Hey Kadra...Ok...this makes more sense now. I thought you had outdoor plants that could marginally grow in your climate and that the winter temperatures were pushing those plants to their winter cold limits. I was thinking that you were going to overwinter some outdoor plants inside and you were concerned about the level of light they would be getting while they waited for spring to pop up again so they could survive outside again. Looks like you have several indoor plants and your indoor environment cannot provide sufficient light. Unfortunately, there is not much you can do apart from installing grow lights or using mirrors to reflect the little light you have directly at the plants. (I know that second option may sound weird, but the Dutch used to do this in their gardens with their tulips. It can work.)

Now to address each of your plants...Let's talk about that African Violet. African Violets are possibly the most finicky plants a gardener can grow. I've written about their care extensively on easybloom.com and I would recommend you check out their plant care needs by searching for African Violet in the search field on our website. They should be repotted often, watered with tepid water, no direct light, etc...They don't actually need all that much light. I would assume that your African Violet could get indirect light by that one window and should be fine. I would like to point out that they prefer high humidity year round. I assume that this time of year you are heating your home, which can artificially dry out the air indoors. I would recommend misting your African Violet or setting up a pebble tray. I explain more on pebble trays in the plant care information for African Violets at http://easybloom.com/plantlibrary/plant/african-violet. Pebble trays unfortunately are not as effective as daily or twice daily misting.