Autumn is two-thirds over today, the Ides of November having passed and Thanksgiving on the horizon in five days. The impatiens and geraniums in my window boxes are still blooming and I hate to put them in the garden compost. After the downy mildew disaster of last year, I’m especially anxious about saying good-bye to the impatiens.
I love to read the English gardening websites so decided to nose around and see what they say about saving these annuals — happily, one site says that you can try to save them. But, they say that the plants will be so exhausted from their summer’s work of blooming that they need a rest so don’t even think about treating them like house plants to be coaxed into flowering.
I’ve never done this and it might not work but, to hold onto them (and save the expense of buying new geraniums next spring), you can dig them up, shake off all the soil, tie a bunch of them together and hang them upside down in the garage over winter. I’ll let you know.
Invariably, at the end of each growing season, the same website articles then say, “Go inside, make a good cup of tea, and dream about the garden next year.” So English!
Btw:
A friend told me that she just could not remember the difference between annuals and perennials. Someone else told her that an easy way to remember is that “annuals” are planted “annually.”
Hmmmm….
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