Now that the night temperatures have gone down to the thirties and the suns rays, even though coming through the windows, aren’t giving off the warmth that they used to; the leaves of my beautiful outdoor plants are starting to go yellow and some are dropping off. It’s sad and when it happens to you for the first time, it can drive you into a panic, oh no I killed my plant. The plant isn’t dying, it is just telling you it is going into a deep sleep and conserving its energy into staying alive. It doesn’t have enough energy to keep its leaves and stay alive at the same time. That is why the watering has to go down to a minimum. It took me a while before I could comfortably walk through the dining room without getting a little anxious that everything was dying. It does make me sad though, the eventual naked bareness of the bougainvillea and the mandeville with the impatiens just barely hanging on.
When spring returns, you do feel better once you see the new growth come and your plants regain their luster. But until then, I try not to linger too much in the dining room or the upstairs plant room except for the once a week watering, because it just reminds me of how long fall and winter are combined and how long we are going to be cold as well. I sometimes feel like a plant, always quite a bit happier in warmer conditions.
laurieanichols 