3 tips for growing indoor-outdoor plants

Whether you grow them on a deck or patio or inside as houseplants, container plants add life and beauty to any space. Here are some tips when growing container plants that can be moved indoors during the winter.

Many of the plants you keep indoors in winter grow best when they spend the summer outdoors, where light is more abundant and there is usually a difference of at least 4°C (10°F) between day and nighttime temperatures.

• Changes in day length enhance the growth of indoor-outdoor plants, too.

When kept outdoors well into fall, plants such as kalanchoe, holiday cactus and most other cacti respond to the shorter, cooler days by producing lots of buds that open several weeks later, when winter is well under way.

• Besides cacti, other terrific indoor-outdoor plant choices include aloes, bromeliads, orchids and palms.

Prevent sunburn by letting plants gradually become accustomed to brighter light when you move them outdoors in spring.

• Start them out on a table placed in a shady spot, then move them to slightly brighter light after a week or so.
• Do the reverse in fall so that plants accustomed to bright outdoor light won't sulk when suddenly shifted to a dim indoor environment.

A change in a plant's location can often herald a sudden growth spurt.

• While it's in the great outdoors, you may not notice how much a philodendron or tree ivy has grown.
• Don't be surprised if you need to change the indoor location of plants that respond to summer outdoors by gaining size.

Plants kept outdoors in summer often host secret visitors, including earthworms, earwigs and aphids.

• Two weeks before bringing them back indoors in winter, begin checking for evidence of hitchhikers.
• A thorough cleaning or quick repotting may be in order.