Fall Cleaning Has Its Merits

Before the furnace comes on for good, let’s start getting our vacationing houseplants rounded up and brought back into the house.

Bringing them inside, make sure most of the stowaway bugs have been located and kicked off. Look carefully under the leaves and on the stems for fine webbing, a sure sign of spider mites. Also look for white cottony masses of mealy bugs, clusters of aphids and small brown lumps, known as scale. They all congregate on tender young leaves and stems. Wash the plants with hot water and/or soapy water. Always test a section of the plant first for toxicity. Even insecticidal soaps registered for houseplants, cannot be used on all houseplants. If the plants are not listed on the insecticide label, do not use the material. If household dishsoap is used, always rinse the plants thoroughly.

Houseplants can also be fumigated by setting the plants in a large black garbage bag and spraying a pesticide registered for the particular plants. Tie the bag closed for a couple of hours. Let the plants air out before bringing them into the house.

With all these precautions, houseplants still may not be bug-free. If the soaps or sprays missed the insect eggs, as they often do, they’ll quickly hatch in the warm house. Quarantine these summer vacationers for a few months from all remaining indoor plants. Sometimes a little vegetable oil mixed with a little liquid detergent will help smother scale and other insets and their eggs.

Geraniums also need to be brought indoors if you plan to save them. There are several “try and see if it works” methods for holding them over the winter. Your very special geraniums, however, will need to be held over with a more sure-fire method.

To ensure the longevity of the special geraniums, keep them alive and growing (if just barely) in the house.

1. Dig and transplant these geraniums into containers of potting soil. There is no need to repot those that are already in pots.

2. If they are shaggy or leggy, cut them back to within four to six inches of the soil. If they are full and beautiful, skip this step (for the moment).

3. Set the plants in front of the sunniest window possible - south-facing is best. Floor-to-ceiling windows are a gift to geranium survival in our area. Here they will receive the maximum amount of winter light. If a very sunny window is not available, artificial lighting can substitute. It will need to be left on for 12 to 14 hours a day.

4. Water just enough to keep the plants damp and never overwater. Keep them in a cool room if possible.

Geraniums kept in this method may not look like show plants, but they will be alive come February when the plants are pruned and new growth is encouraged.

For those less-valuable plants where experimentation is acceptable, here are some ideas:

1. Dig all the plants and shake off the excess soil.

2. Cut the plants back to within four to six inches of the roots.

3. And, for a few “we’ll try it and see if it works” options:

Fill a large tub to about one-quarter depth with dampened peat moss. Collect a dozen or so pruned plants and squeeze them all into the tub, forcing their roots into the dampened peat. Add a little peat to the top of the root and place the tub in a dark, cool room until next February.

Collect a number of pruned plants and turn them upside down in a brown paper bag - roots exposed at the top. Place the bag in a dark, cool room until February. Give the roots a little spray of water about every four or five weeks. This helps keep them from totally drying out.

Hang the entire plant or pruned geraniums upside down in a dark, cool room. (Pruned plants aren’t quite as messy as full, leafy plants.) Again, spritz the roots about every four or five weeks or so. Leave them until February.

Come February, no matter how you’ve kept the geraniums, it’s time to get them actively growing again. Prune the plants back to within four inches of the base if you didn’t already accomplish this task in the fall. If the plants are already pruned, simply nip the ends to give them a clean start.

Cut the roots so that they are all about the same length - about four to five inches from the base of the plant.

Soak the roots in a pail of warm water for a few hours.

Plant the geraniums in containers that will accommodate their root systems.

Now for the hard part: Give them full sun in a cool room. There aren’t many days of full sun that time of year, and the sun is still low in the sky. Unless your home has large windows that receive plenty of light, artificial lighting will be required.

Fertilize and water moderately.

By April, begin hardening the plants to the outdoors by gradually exposing them to the outside conditions. By May the plants should be ready for planting.

Is it worth it? Some will definitely say “yes.” Some will say “no.” I say it’s worth the adventure.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Phyllis Stephens The Spokesman-Reveiw