Hello fellow Stewbies, I'm beginning to tuck up my container gardens for Fall. This season, I had some great Coleus and I'd like to successfully keep cuttings alive all winter. Does anyone have any tips or advice on the methods to try.? Sometimes they get so leggy during the winter! Full sun? or can they take a dimmer area? What is a good length of stem to root in water? Thanks for sharing.... any ideas...
They will need a good amount of light just because winter light is much lower than summer light quality. Keep them close to a bright window and give them humidity. That is why most plants die when they come in from outside. Low humidity and too little light.
I’m so glad you posted this question Kay! I have an amazing Coleus that I would love to somehow keep till spring. And the ONLY reason it’s amazing is because of all the great advice I got here several years ago when I first started growing them as a container plant!! So I’ll be following this with interest!
I have some Rosemary plants I would like to over winter. I succeeded in doing this one year .... Only one year. Ever since they have always died. I might try putting them under lights in the basement.
I had a serious affair with a Coleus plant once. I kept that thing going for five years. I would take cuttings and strip the lower leaves of the stem off, leaving the growing point and two or at the most three adult leaves. I dropped the cuttings in tap water that I had let stand for 24 hours...or sometimes rainwater, if i had it. They rooted rather quickly and when the root ball was large enough in my estimation, I would plant them in potting soil with feed in it. That was all. When the plant reached adulthood and began forming bloom spikes....I snipped the bloom spikes off and started the process all over again. The only reason that i stopped was because we upped sticks, put the belongings in storage and went travelling. There are a couple of ways to keep Rosemary over indoors during the winter months: You can keep the plant is a pot...cool and only a modicum of water now and then with limited light. You can lift the plant and remove all the soil from the roots and wrap them in sawdust, paper or dry compost,or in vermiculite.(These you keep completely dark) You can also keep them in a bare root status but then WITH a bit of light and generally cool. They will need a very small amount of water on those roots from time to time. Not too much though, and definitely not in a warm temperature, as the fungus will form. Sometimes keeping them over is easy, and sometimes not. Success can be elusive...but worth a try. If you do not give up and keep trying you will eventually become handy. A final possibility is to cover them all winter with a generous plastic cloche leaving them outside. Another outdoor possibility is my mulching the, with a very generous amount of compost or dead plant debris. This last possibility is what I did back when I used to worry about them. We are mild enough now so I do not do anything with them and they stay in situ and return each summer year after year. I have never tried keeping them over like Carolyn, so I have no idea how that would work at your latitude. Here's wishing you some success, mate.
Wow! O had no idea Rosemary could be stored in those ways! I think I will try methods 1&2. Thanks. I'll just have to keep my husband's clippers away from them!
Ok so, I cut some cuttings today. We’re having some unseasonably cool weather here! I didn’t want to chance having the plant get nipped by cold and ruined. Sjoerd- I think I may try to pot them up when they’ve rooted out. And I also have rosemary! I was thinking of harvesting most of it to dry. Will the plant care if it’s had a good shear? And it doesn’t need bright sun? I’ve never had my rosemary make it all through winter to the next season.
I have sheared my Rosemary almost to the ground and it has come back wonderfully. Coleus I always root in water and make sure I have a good lower node without leaves and in about 2 weeks time you should be seeing roots.
Island life- I’m in zone 5 so rosemary is grown as an annual here. No way it could make it through our winters! Mine is potted, should I cut it back?
Ohhhhh Zone 5 is pretty chilly so I can see why your Rosemary isn't making it. I'm in 'roughly' Zone 8. I do grow mine in a large pot and have chopped it back quite a bit (to shape it) and it has always come back. I find it to be super hardy around here.
@Kay further up in this thread, Sjoerd had some suggestions for overwintering Rosemary. Check it out.
Hio Kay--I don't know what to day about shearing Rosemary. I have never done that in the fall or winter. Here the plants turn brown and die-off above ground during the winter. I then remove the dead stuff the following March, around the Ides. If I think about it, I would imagine that it would be oké to shear them now, as those stems would turn brown and die anyway...that does not mean that your whole plant will necessarily die. I shall cross things for you.
Hello Sjoerd! I just happened to be using my phone so I see your reply quickly! Thanks for your input. Today is a cold windy wet day, with frost warnings tonight. I’m waiting for a lull in the rain to go out and gather the last of my begonias, coleus and herbs growing in containers to get them protected in my shed. I’m going to bring the rosemary in and cut it way back. I’ll see if I can keep it alive. Thanks for crossing things LOL I will too!
