Frost Warning!!!

October 15 is generally the date we begin to expect colder temperatures and frost -- I knew it was coming and I planned to move my tender plants inside before we leave for Baltimore next Wednesday. But not yet -- maybe this weekend, I thought.

It was 'right chilly' all day yesterday and I eventually even closed most of the windows in the house. Still, it was a surprise when, as I was working away at my laptop in the late afternoon, John called up the stairs to say that there was a frost warning and maybe we'd better bring those plants in.

So here they are, crammed into the little greenhouse -- calamondin and bay trees, rosemary and scented geranium, brugmansia, coleus, begonias, pineapple sage, amaryllis, bougainvillea, cacti --- all those pots of plants huddled together willy-nilly. The smell is wonderful -- and when the cold days come and the landscape is bleak, the door into the greenhouse will be a door into summer.

In the next few weeks I'll cut back a lot of the plants and root cuttings to have more plants next year. I'll do some repotting as well and try to find homes for some of the excess -- it's hard to toss out a plant because there's not enough room but I'm going to be forced into tough love.

That spathesphyllum (peace lily) in the foreground below used to sit on the counter beside the kitchen sink -- not any more. And where I once had one dragon plant -- now I have three because I hate to throw out the stems I'm forced to prune and so I root them.

All these house plants started out as little small things, many grown from cuttings but now they're making it difficult to move around. I must force myself to be firm -- the plants are taking over. Our house has become a no-kill plant shelter but I need to remind myself that these are just plants -- not puppies and kittens.

But when I look at the wine-red and fuchsia leaves of this coleus with their lovely chartreuse picotee edging, my first thought is to make more.

And, no, there wasn't a frost. Not yet.