Raising flowering annuals indoors is so simple that we wonder why it took so long for us to discover it.
If you have a sunny window, you can do it too; you don’t need special window glass or a fancy planting box.
The blooms may not achieve greenhouse perfection but are colorful on the sill or in arrangements.
As with annuals in the garden, the more the flowers are cut, the more the plants produce.
How do you do it? Well, remember, annuals are plants that bloom and produce seeds in one growing year.
The Secret Of Success
Annuals that have flowered all summer in the garden cannot be expected to continue flowering after they have been potted up and brought indoors, even if they are cut back. This is because their life cycle has been completed outdoors.
The secret of success is to use young plants or healthy half-grown plants which, perhaps because of a late start, have not yet reached the flowering stage outdoors.
Self-Seeding Volunteer Plants
Many volunteer plants that self-seed later in the season from early flowers – annual poppies, bachelor’s buttons, baby’s-breath, and candytuft make excellent winter plants.
The seedlings are strong and will transplant easily, and you’ll find that thinning will improve the border.
If you don’t want to depend upon young plants from the border, start seeds early enough so that the seedlings will be about the same size for potting up to bring indoors before frost as the seedlings you set outdoors in the spring.
Any good garden loam mixed with a small amount of peat moss will make good potting soil.
Potting Different Plants
The small plants should be dug and potted early to adjust to the pots before moving them indoors. Then, move them carefully so you do not unnecessarily disturb the roots.
Pot up as many different plants as possible because some may not survive even if the move indoors. Some may be short-lived there, and others will flower from October until May.
Pinch back the newly potted plants to encourage stocky growth and place them in a shaded location for a few days until they become established.
Checking For Insect Pest
They can be placed in the sun until the weather turns cold or frost threatens; then, they should be brought indoors.
Check them regularly for insect pests while they are still outside – white flies, aphids, or red spiders.
If you cannot get rid of these pests on a plant outside, discard the plant, as the insects will multiply quickly indoors and spread to healthy plants.
Room Temperature
Give the plants a window seat with southern or western exposure to receive maximum sun.
The plants should be several inches away from the windowpane; on freezing nights, place newspaper between the glass and the plants to protect them from the cold.
Room temperature is important; the plants do best at temperatures up to 70° degrees Fahrenheit.
A room of their own in which the temperature can be regulated is good but not essential.
Regular Watering and Feeding
Regular watering is necessary, or the lower foliage will dry up and fall off. Then the plants will become unsightly even though they may keep on flowering.
You can give them several feedings of commercial fertilizer in liquid form during the winter.
Common Garden Flowers
You don’t have to indulge in a windowful of rare plants indoors in winter; adopt the common garden flowers.
Petunias are always dependable. Young plants or newly rooted cuttings taken in the fall from older plants will flower profusely.
Cut the blooms often for bouquets, keeping the stems from becoming spindly.
When the blooms begin to wither, don’t just pinch off the dead beads; cut back some of the stems so that the plants will stay bushy and be forced to send out new growth.
Winter Flowers
Marguerites or Boston yellow daisies are good winter flowers, too. Cuttings rooted in September will flower in six weeks.
They will give many flowers for cutting as well as provide showy house plants. Cuttings or slips may be taken like regular chrysanthemums: root them in the sand.
Calendulas are lovely, but the flowers do not last. The blossoms of verbena, scabiosa, snapdragon, larkspur, dwarf and tall marigolds, zinnias, celosia, Chinese forget-me-not, Salpiglossis, nasturtiums (try the foliage in winter salads), dwarf annual phlox, heliotrope, and pinks all last at least three weeks on the plant.
Viola Seed Germination
If Heavenly Blue morning glories are started from seed in January, by the end of March, you’ll have a wealth of blooms on vines trained up the side of a window.
The flowers often last throughout the entire day, especially in an eastern window where they receive morning sun and afternoon shade.
If you have violas in your garden, take some of the soil from underneath the parent plants and place it on top of other potted annuals or even regular house plants.
The viola seed in the soil will germinate in January or February, and the viola will begin to flower at about the end of March!
44659 by Marion Black Williams