If You're Cold, They're Cold: Bring Them In!

In which T. Tiger welcomes the last few yard plants, which I repotted and brought into the house today.

At end of season, I have still been babying along a couple of pots of plants in the yard. I got my Mexican sunflowers in late this year, and they have gotten to the point where they all have orange blooms waiting, ready, but they just haven't . . . you know . . . actually bloomed! And my tuberose grew some green leaves, but I got not a single bloom.

For the past few weeks, I've been moving the pots down into the yard each day and out into the sun. Overnight, if it's too cold, I bring them back up onto the front porch or sit them by the garage, or even bring them indoors overnight if it's too chilly. (That morning I made frozen bubbles, yes, they were indoors that day!)

With temperatures dipping below freezing most nights this week, I thought it was time to do something with the plants. I had originally resolved to just  let them go, and freeze and die (except for the tuberose, which you pull out and store over winter), but when it came down to it, I just couldn't do that!

So I did as my husband suggested, and I took the plants out of their big pots and replanted them into fresh potting soil in smaller pots, as I know that bringing "outdoors dirt" inside often results in little bugs everywhere. So I finished up a bag of potting soil that was in the shed, and there was EXACTLY enough to finish the task, weirdly enough.

This was the scene right after that on the front porch, where Tiny Tiger welcomed the plants into our home. I told him that they weren't vampires or anything, they didn't really need to be invited in across the threshold like that, but he was insistent.

So here is my welcoming party of ONE small Tiger (appropriately clad for the season in his fancy hat and scarf), welcoming the last of the yard plants and inviting them to come in from the cold. Will they live? Will they ever bloom? Who knows? I guess we'll see!

Our soundtrack song must be this one: Joni Mitchell, with Come In From the Cold.