Winter is always a challenge for me:  the shorter daylight hours, the cold (often frigid) temperatures, blizzards, mountains of snow to be shoveled, wind, freezing rain, and ice.  I often joked that if I could, I’d hibernate in a cave for the winter—or maybe just snuggle on the sofa at home with a good book for those 89 days.  That wasn’t an option while I worked 8-5, five days a week.  Now that I’ve left office life behind, it’s still not at all realistic, so I find other ways to cope.

While it’s true that my garden is currently covered in snow and the ground frozen solid, I still manage to find some gardening to do.  These days it’s indoors.  My dining room features a five-shelf plant stand with grow lights that’s home to my African violets and a number of other small plants.  A nearby window provides light to aloe and holiday cactus.  Upstairs, a room with east and south facing windows is home to my citrus collection:  small Meyer lemon, lime, and calamondin orange trees—all under three feet high and bearing fruit or flowers.  Every other room has at least one or two houseplants to remind me that winter isn’t forever.

Calamondin Orange (Citrus x citrofortunella mitis)

This time of year, my indoor garden keeps me busy just keeping all the plants watered.  They’re all exceptionally thirsty in the warm, dry heat from my furnace.  I check them daily and enjoy their flowers or foliage or fruit.  I’ll admit I’m not quite sure about the sweet/sour taste of the calamondin oranges, but it’s a beautiful plant and makes me smile just inhaling its fragrance.

While winter may not be the best time to attempt propagation, I have taken cuttings of a few plants.  Leaf sections of my streptocarpus a/k/a Cape primrose are rooting under a clear dome in a small seed starting tray, and cuttings from my jasmine hang in test tube rooters in my kitchen window. 

Streptocarpus leaf cuttings

Of course, one of my favorite winter gardening activities is anticipation of spring and the coming growing season.  Browsing through the seed catalogs or shopping online, sketching out new garden beds, and decided what seeds to start keep me going as I count down the days to spring until it’s finally time to start those seeds.

If you’re interested in doing some indoor gardening this winter, you’ll find some ideas in this article I wrote:  https://tinyurl.com/8npj3yfb. 

Do you garden inside during the colder months?  Do you have houseplants that help fight off the dreaded cabin fever?  I’d love to hear from you.

Cape Primrose (streptocarpus)

* * * * *