If I had to choose for some reason, I think it would be the year-round constant-ness of house plants, but not totally 100% sure. I love spring, but it's depressing when winter comes.

Though I do long for a house with a big yard, I think I prefer houseplants. It certainly would be nice to have a patio/balcony to summer them outside, but I don't mind as long as the plants don't. :) It's nice to have the friends indoors, especially in the winter, where all you see in Michigan is white and brown, and the occasional green outdoors.

I am definitely most emotionally invested in my daylilies and oldest iris since they moved up with me to NC from GA. I have been worried about them with the weather lately, but I can always move them in and out of the garage as it gets colder at night.

Even though I am less emotional about them, I am more excited about houseplants, especially going into winter, since there is so much to learn and so many nooks/crannies around the house to try to work plants into. I am about at max capacity, but I am not ready to admit that yet! There have to be more window spaces! :)

Rachel, thanks for connecting the dots, I peeked to refresh my memory and LOVE the stair-step pots. And your magnet! Do you plan to put your outside plants in the ground eventually? Daylilies are TOUGH, unless it's going to freezes solid for a while, they probably actually like the cold at night. Hardy much farther north than where you are, where they do freeze but I know being in a pot adds risk, and the temp change is much more drastic and yo-yo'ish from day to night.

Do you have plants hanging in the windows to save space (and, of course, usually tons of light?) I'll be double- and maybe triple- hanging pots in mine when they come in. Even some that are in regular pots, I'm going to just sit those pots in the hanging pots, like a cache pot, since a lot of the hanging pots would sit under the shed empty for winter anyway. What is it about hanging pots that's more cheerful than if the same plant were on a table? Or is it just me?

This is what I like to do outside, Coleus! And whatever else I can find to play with that's free or not expensive. Except for 6 plants I bought this year, all of the Coleus (and some is Perilla 'Magilla') is saved from cuttings from last year and replanted this year outside. I have a blast doing it, similarly but differently, each year.

Yeah, I know my daylilies are hardier than I give them credit for...Just me being an overprotective worry wart! Looks like tonight there's a 40% chance of snow, so we'll be hauling them back into the garage.

Yeah, eventually, I'd like to plant them in the ground. I'm just not comfortable planting in the ground while we're still renting. I keep telling DH. "Look, hunny. We won't have to pay for landscaping when we buy our first house! Our daylilies and irises keep making offshoots, so we'll have tons of plants".

I don't have any hanging plants, but I think that (especially if we're in this rental for another few years), that's the direction my gardening is heading with limited space here.

Love the coleus! super colorful display. neat you change it up every year too.

Well, my heart belongs to both - winter focuses my attention on the indoor plants, as the outdoor ones are sleeping, but spring/summer/fall almost all of my indoor plants are outside, and my outside plants are in great need of attention as they're growing and flowering.

I'm curious - why did you ask that question here? It's not OT in the least.

Cheers,

Jeff

I do need to get more flowers. I love deadheading and rarely have any of that to do. Will be going into heavy seed mode in the spring.

Aww, sorry to hear about that magnet, Rachel! I bet they sell those as fast as they can grow new ones. Such a cool oddity, and who doesn't like a seashell?

Didn't realize or forgot you were renting if you said. We're renting too so that's why I do such a temporary display and almost all of the other plants are from propagation, not purchases. My landlady is a gardener too, I'm sure she expects I might dig some stuff if I moved. We've given each other plants many times.

Are there any beds there to plant in? Maybe you could get something signed that says what plants you are putting in the ground and that you have a right to remove those when you move. That's probably overkill but I don't know your situation. Unless you leave a mess, or get ridiculous and start removing shrubs/trees, I don't think anyone would even notice, or care if they did. I've rented a lot of places and always dug up some stuff when I left. The one place I left angry and took everything down to the brick edging I had installed. Some of the plants here were moved around to a few different places in OH, then to my Mom's here in AL, then over here at my house. I don't know why that gives me a kind of weird thrill. Do what you feel comfortable with though, of course, just food for thought...

'Tis the season for pecans...

Of course, if we lived in a warmer zone, a good number would be in-ground, but unfortunately, that isn't bound to happen.

As I look outside, the only living plants: Sage, Mums, 2 Euonymous, 3 Sedums, Holly, Barberry, Honeysuckle, Azalea, variegated Sage, Yuccas, variegated Lilac and a beautiful, colorful Ornamental Cabbage.

Aw, pecans..When we were in TN, a relative of dh had several Pecan trees in her yard..yard, lol, more like a field.

Do pecans need cooking, curing, whatever it's called before eating? Toni

Toni, pecans are delicious as soon as they fall off of the tree. I usually toast them before baking with them, makes them more crunchy.

I LOVE ornamental cabbage!

Was trimming Coleus for cuttings all afternoon, again. Always surprises me how long that takes, had to quit when it got dark. They're all over the house, but here's one group, about 100 individuals, and a few other things that were in water on the porch.