In winter, conditions change, even at home: your green plants need more attention.
The days get shorter, the sun is less visible: in winter the brightness drops, and what can have an impact on our morale also has an impact on houseplants!
Those which are the most sensitive to it are flowering plants and plants with colored or variegated foliage.
If their leaves start to yellow, it is because of the lack of light.
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Which plants to choose for a cold environment?
A cold veranda is actually an unheated veranda. Unheated but not exposed to the climate! During the hibernation period, from November to February, no plant survives the frost. Excessive draughts and humidity never go well with the olive tree or the aster. Once these precautions are taken, many species accept temperatures of 10°C.
In spring, the veranda can even be an ideal transit for your young fruit trees before their stay on the terrace. And as soon as May, from 15°C, it becomes possible to grow your first tomato plants.
12 plants for cold rooms (or veranda and greenhouse)
1) Bougainvillea
Sensitive to the cold, bougainvillea grows well in pots on terraces and balconies. A winter storage is essential in a bright and cold room.
2) Jasmine
Jasmine is a climbing shrub with evergreen or semi evergreen foliage depending on the variety. Its leaves are composed of 3 to 7 light green oval leaflets.
A cold room is the only way to keep your jasmine healthy. It lacks light and dries out inside and is too cold outside. Water when the first 3 cm of soil are dry, then the following days, water again, but with flower fertilizer.
3) Bonsai
For your bonsai, choose a place that is airy, bright and sufficiently protected from the summer sun and winter frost. The sun is an imperative: sheltered from the light, the bonsai will tend to stretch to get closer to the sun, but too much exposure would risk burning its foliage. A balance must be found! In winter, protect your tree by burying its pot.
4) Mimosas
The mimosa will illuminate your room thanks to its bright yellow bloom. The mimosa does not support, neither the frost, nor to be returned to the warmth in winter. The cold room is perfect for it.
5) Laurel-pink
A well-deserved success for this magnificent shrub which usually measures 1 to 3 m high and can reach 5 m in the wild. To install it in a cold room or veranda, place your oleander in a pot or tub in the sun and light!
6) Passionflower
It is an evergreen climbing liana. Its original flowers, present colors like white, pink, red, blue or purple. It fears the winters and must therefore be cultivated in pot and returned to the shelter in a veranda or a cold room.
7) Bacopa
Bacopa is a perennial plant that can withstand temperatures as low as -9°C. However it tends to be thrown away at the end of the summer period. At the end of the season, it is possible to keep it and replace the annual flowers that accompany it with species that last all autumn, or even bloom in winter.
If you choose to keep a bacopa all year round, you must place it in a place where it is sheltered from the extreme cold, a veranda will be perfectly suitable.
8) Agave
Agave is a succulent perennial recognizable by its large, thorny leaves. Leaf rosettes range in size from only 10 cm in diameter in Agave pumila to 3 m in A. americana. Prefer for this plant, the hot, arid climates and the slightly strong grounds. The winter, place it in a veranda heated to 5 °C at least.
9) Anthurium
The anthurium is a pretty exotic plant which belongs to the Araceae family just like the arum. It is preferable to place it in a heated veranda with a temperature between 18°C and 21°C all year round, and don’t forget that it doesn’t like draughts!
10) Arum
The arum is a pretty original flower, it is in the shape of a cone. It appreciates a sunny but not scorching exposure. It likes the light but fears too much cold and wind.
Namely: indoor arum is an excellent barometer. Indeed, a drop of water forms at the tip of its leaves when it rains.
11) Dioneus, Venus Flycatcher
Outdoors all year round, the Venus Flycatcher needs to be in a cool but bright room.
12) Orchids
Varied, unusual and fascinating, orchids have long been rare and inaccessible. Today, several species and varieties are quite easy to grow indoors, even when cold. You just have to avoid draughts and protect them from light and direct sunlight in summer. In winter, install them in full light. A greenhouse or veranda will do the trick.
Summary
With the winter, the desire to cocoon and take care of us points the tip of its nose. But this is not a reason to neglect our interior and our green plants.
Even if they live a little slower, they need to be pampered. But not just anyhow. In our overheated interiors in winter, we thus respect some rules to be sure to keep our plant nuggets for a long time.
