Overwintering, small scale

I tend to focus on the "big" aspect of overwintering plants: dragging the towering potted papyrus inside, digging up the huge colocasia (elephant ears), mulching the bananas with 250 cubic feet of leaves or more. There's the small side of overwintering too, the little details that might get overlooked.

For instance, the first emergence of the purple fountain grass, the point at which I can relax because I know that those one or two-stem divisions were successful. Plus it's so enjoyable watching their progress every day, like spring indoors.

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I have only a single cactus seedling growing right now, as the germination rate of these seeds is terrible:

I'm actually concerned that this little guy is dead, as I haven't seen any change in him for a few weeks. He's looking a bit too brown as well I think.

Speaking of seedlings, I don't think I've ever shown you my venus flytrap seedlings:

These two little plants were received as part of a plant trade early this year, and they were unbelievable small when I got them. They're still tiny, as they're living in reused yogurt cups...

...and you can see that they are nowhere close to filling these containers. I'll leave these in the garage for a while longer -- the winter dormant period is essential for them -- then move them onto the growing table where they can help control the fungus gnats that inevitably appear.

So although the big plants are all tucked away in the garage (in theory at least -- many haven't really been put into their final storage spaces yet), it's the little plants that give me the most enjoyment right now.

Then seed-starting season is just a couple of months away (optimistically)...

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