A Mixed Bag For Overwintering Plants This Year

It’s been a mixed bag for overwintering plants this year (2024-2025). We’ve had some successes and some unfortunate failures.

Have you ever had one of those restaurant experiences where the food was great, but the service was terrible? You think to yourself, “I don’t know if this was worth trying again.”

That’s me right now with overwintering plants.

Keep in mind, I also forgot childbirth was painful, and I had more than one child. So, take my whining with a pound of salt, and meet me back here next year for another update. Ha!

Seriously though, we have the ideal setup for overwintering plants on our sunporch. It’s like having a nice, toasty greenhouse attached to our home. I happily sun myself out there like a lizard on a rock in the dead of winter. True story.

I’m not a lizard (surprise, surprise), and rocks are uncomfortable, so there’s a couch to make us humans comfortable while soaking in the sun next to the plants we are overwintering.

This year, I set out to overwinter a green bell pepper plant, a yellow bell pepper plant, a habanero, two jalapeno plants, six ferns, a petunia, two geraniums, one polka dot plant, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Things started out great, but winter, or the time these plants need to survive inside, is at least six very long months.

That’s a considerable amount of time for the wheels to fall off this overwintering bus.

The good news is that it didn’t take that long.

One day in late fall, I noticed whiteflies had turned one of the pepper plants into their all-you-can-eat buffet.

I know people who are trying to sell you solutions will tell you it’s possible to get rid of whiteflies. Maybe it is, and I’m so happy for them. I haven’t figured out how to do it without the plant dying first.

I did start treating Patient Zero as soon as I noticed whiteflies. The problem is that I got cocky and didn’t isolate the infected plant immediately. Whiteflies seem to be able to…how do I say this…fly. Yes, they can move from one plant to another faster than a child who sneezes in your face will give you their cold.

Long story short, we now have a pepper plant graveyard in the basement.

The good news is that whiteflies don’t seem to be interested in any of the non-vegetable plants on our sunporch. Thank goodness for small mercies.

That means our geraniums have absolutely, positively thrived this winter. They appear to be living their best life on the sunporch, which is understandable. I, too, would be living my best life if I spent all winter in a warm, sunny place.

The red geranium will be two years old in May. The pink geranium will turn one in May. They were both Mother’s Day gifts.

The geraniums have also bloomed off and on since October. Do you know how incredible it is to see a blooming geranium in the dead of winter? It’s not quite as incredible as lying on a warm beach while sipping a fruity drink, but it’s darn close.

The comeback story of this winter are the ferns. I cut my three gorgeous ferns in half with a handsaw back in October and planted them in six different pots.

That was a shock to both of our systems.

Three of the ferns that have been on the sunporch since T-Day (trim day) are growing back pretty nicely.

The three ferns that I put in the basement at first by a teeny tiny window because there was no room on the sunporch are growing back more slowly. I admit they still look a bit, and I say this generously, bedraggled.

I moved them up to the sunporch after the peppers died. We had a vacancy! Unsurprisingly, the ferns seem happier up here. It was definitely an upgrade from the basement.

One thing is for certain. Ferns are survivors. I’m documenting this so I can see how their recovery progresses or doesn’t over time.

Last but not least, there’s always one plant that’s going to baffle you. For me, it’s the petunia.

It was also a 2024 Mother’s Day gift. It wasn’t ever that happy outside, but it hadn’t died by October. It had that “I’ll barely live and make you work for it” kind of energy.

I moved it inside to the sunporch and didn’t expect much because it’s a petunia.

Lo and behold, it also started blooming and looks healthier than when my kids gifted it to me last May. Like I said, baffling.

I tread lightly around this plant because I don’t quite understand it. Between you and me, I think the plant likes it that way.

I took the photos for this blog post around March 1. All of these plants have at least another eight weeks of sunporch life before I move them outside for the spring and summer.

I try to wait until I’m fairly certain there won’t be any freezing overnight temperatures.

The plants can’t stay on the sunporch because we don’t use it during the summer. It doesn’t have air-conditioning, so it gets hotter than the hinges on the gates to Hell out there.

By my count, we lost five plants and have kept ten alive so far. Since all the dead plants were vegetables, maybe we shouldn’t try to keep those alive this coming winter.

Have you tried overwintering any plants that might otherwise meet their demise after a long, hot summer? Let me know how it went! You can always comment on this blog post, email me here, or reach out via Instagram or Facebook.

Happy Gardening.

Thanks for following along on this journey. The drama! If you’d like to read something a little more drama-free, I don’t think I can help you. However, you might like one of these blog posts:

Before and After of Our Navy Blue Sunporch

A Haint Blue Porch Ceiling In New Jersey

The Prettiest Flower Basket Centerpiece