Hide yo' mom hide yo' plants

Letter from the Farmer-General

Hi again from Lawrenceville. We sent out our first email in a loooong time last week and heard back from so many of you we haven't seen in ages. Keep sending us pictures of your plants and gardens – it's so awesome and we love seeing them!

Here in Southwestern PA, Mother's Day is usually our rule of thumb for when we can start planting tender annuals and move the houseplants outside, but not this year. The weather forecast is calling for frost this weekend, and it looks like another week or so before we can move the plants out. Keep an eye on your forecast and be careful before you jump the gun, whether it's with houseplants or the vegetable garden. If you've already planted out some tender annuals, cover them up! You don't have to worry about perennials or cool-season annuals like peonies, iris, delphinium, pansies or anything like that – they'll be OK through a little frost.

Speaking of moving houseplants outside, here are a few tips. First of all, if you don't take your houseplants on an outdoor vacation for the summer, you should consider it! Most houseplants are tropicals that will love the heat and humidity of summer way more than the dry, air-conditioned inside of your house. And with sun-loving houseplants like succulents or citrus, they'll especially appreciate getting out in the sun after being cooped up all winter.

But here's a warning. Even plants that love full sun shouldn't be moved directly out into the blazing sunshine. They're just like many of you: pasty and pale from spending all winter indoors. Even the cleanest glass reduces light transmission by about 20% (and let's be real, if your windows are anything like mine this time of year, they're not perfectly clean). If you put them right out in full sun, it's likely that you'll burn the leaves. Much better if you acclimate them for a few days to a week in partial shade (or overcast weather), then move them into the full sun. They'll have their base tan and be ready to sunbathe. This also goes for any plants you buy that have been in a nursery, store, or greenhouse – give them some time to acclimate.

Most houseplants are good to go out when night temperatures are above 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit, but there are a few temperature-sensitive plants like poinsettias or gardenias that should wait until they're in the 60s. And a few plants aren't good candidates to go outside at all – African violets don't like to get cold water on the leaves, so unless you can protect them from a possible chilly rain, keep them safely inside.

Anyway, that's all from us this week. Despite the weather, we're busy getting flowers together for Mother's Day and next week we'll start to focus on the outdoors again. We'll keep writing and letting you know what's going on here, and we'd love to hear back from more of you! Send us an email, connect on Instagram or Facebook, or heck, even send us a postcard!

———Until next week,
Jonathan, Farmer-General
& the whole greenSinner family