Many of us put some or all of our houseplants outside for the summer. Now that fall is here, it's time to think about moving them back in for the long winter ahead.

Video Transcription

Welcome to this week’s Growing Wisdom, and what we are talking about today is the fact that many of you put your houseplants outside all summer long and then you have to get to bring them inside. You know that could be quite a shocked to a plant, it has been out in the beautiful weather. It has had the nice wind going, now you are bringing inside, you have got heat, it is dry in there, the plant is not happy. So, you want to prepare it to bringing inside a couple of ways. I am in front of this wonderful plant that my Uncle started this from a seed in front of my grandmother’s house back in 1980. So, this is a special plant. It is an Aralia, type of an Aralia, and when I bring this inside. I do not want to just leave it outside until the first frost and then bring it inside. A couple of reasons, one is, it might have bugs. You know plants have been outside all summer long, so it might have bugs. So, I want to treat it for the bugs by spraying it. And what I spray it with, is a dormant oil. I spray my plants with a dornmant oil which should smother any eggs that around there and it should also take care of any existing bugs. The other thing I do, is I put a Systemic in the soil and what that does is that any residual bugs that are in there will die over the course of the next few weeks. So, I would like to do that in late August through September to prepare this to kill any bugs from not bringing them inside and hurting my plants. The other thing you want to do is that for about two weeks, every night you want to bring it in and then put it out during the day provided it is warm enough. What that will do, is it will begin to acclimate the plant it is called hardening off. You will harden this plant off, so that it is acclimated to the inside conditions. It is similar to what we do with plants in the beginning of the season. You do not want to put something in the ground immediately that you started inside for the same reason. It was inside all winter, you do not want to just throw it outside. So, you put it outside during the day and bring it in at night. We do the same thing to bring things back in during the course of the fall season. If you follow these simple steps, remember, treat for your bugs, and then also, harden it off. Get it used to the fact that it is going to be inside. Your plant should survive a bit longer inside and hopefully, put them back outside next summer. Comeback every week for our latest videos, here at www.GrowingWisdom.com.