Spring is here, How did we all do getting thru Winter? It is time to fess up!!

[jpiper82]

Charlie, and the gang! Hi! I am back from the coldest winter in Texas with 10" of snow twice, and really long freezing temperatures, like days on end!.  I thought I was really doing good moving all my cv's into the garage, keeping all the cfl's on and having a temp around 50deg.  That all worked fine till they started dropping a few leafs now and then. We had a little warm spell and I put them all outside for some much needed sun and warmth. It was only supposed to go down to 40 deg that night and guess what? it went to 32! Now that was a bad day!

In the meantime it got colder in the garage..

Went to my original Plan"B"

I brought them all back in the house, 70 deg. stuffed them everywhere where there was heat and sunlight.  and now we will wait and see!  Tomorrow I will put them on the "In and Out Schedule"  Sunlight and 60 deg. OUTSIDE,  Lows below 45deg. INSIDE,  I will increase the watering/fert. to try and stimulate them to Wake Up.

As I know you all have, I have also made my contribution to the Charlie and Cindy 401k for the year 2010. Can't wait to see what I get this year!

Now I wonder how Bart is doing in KY?

Good to be back, John Piper

Not divorced yet!

[Charlie]

Hi John,

Welcome back! Your winter was something else. We didn't get the extreme cold here in southern CA but I felt the pain of it in the form of the highest propane costs I have ever paid. From Florida to the Rockies the cold weather drove the demand for propane and the prices went way up. Spring is peaking around the corner but I have another 1000 gallons of propane on the way as soon as they can get here....

I'm not surprised that you moved your hibiscus from garage to house by winter's end. The cumulative effect of night after night of cold but not freezing temps finally does a number on hibiscus. Seems to show the worst just before spring arrives. Even so, once they get enough warmth most of them will leaf out, then bud up and start blooming again.

I received some iPhone videos from Bart showing the evolution of his windowless growing room over the winter. Seemed to me he did pretty well using a high powered light and providing plenty of warmth to them. Some mishaps and learning experiences but all in all I saw a lot of green leafy hibiscus in the videos.

Nice to hear from you again.

Charlie

[1.618]

Here in Ontario our methods are also slowly evolving and we are also experimenting with a near windowless growing room in our basement for winter. We now have over a hundred different cv's in the collection and still expanding so finding window space is really tough! I tested a couple of least valuable plants in our basement the previous winter with no heat and no light for about 6 months and they survived pretty well so I thought I'd try this with the whole collection this year.

Well wouldn't you know I discovered that my initial test plants were actually not very representative and tougher than the average. When I put the whole collection down there many started looking really bad after a couple of months so I moved them back upstairs filling my living room and every available window. I did end up losing a few precious babies!

I'm already planning changes for next winter. Some insulation on my basement walls, a little more heating and lots of lights!

Ian

[Nievesgirl]

Hello everyone , My hibiscus are safe since they where inside all winter. The true test will be next year ! I will be giving some of my seedlings to friends and families so hopefully they will do well when winter comes. I might have to take some back in winter so they can get older and have a chance against the cold.

[helixturnhelix]

Sadly its still three more months till the hibs can be safely grown outside.  Lucky for me my sunny warm apartment has allowed many branches and blooms!  Sunkissed blonde is going to bloom for the first time tomorrow and looks like I may have five blooms on Burnished gold.  We will see though

It also looks like there are buds on RRG Dragon's heart and Illuminati.  The increased sunlight and nice weather this week can really be seen in how much faster the hibiscus are growing!