Over the past few weeks the night time temperatures have dipped down into the upper 40's and low 50's.  Even though we are currently experiencing dry summer like conditions during the day, cooler weather is just around the corner.  If you have plants outside in the ground or in containers and you want to bring them in for the winter, there are a few things you need to consider. 

Sudden changes in temperature, light, and humidity can be traumatic to plants, resulting in yellowed leaves, dieback, wilting, and even death.  To prevent shock when you bring plants back indoors, expose plants gradually to reduced lighting. Over a period of about a week, gradually reduce light levels by moving plants from sun to light shade to heavy shade, and finally indoors. When you move plants indoors, make sure the light conditions are as close as possible to those out-doors. Once indoors, some of the leaves may turn yellow and drop off as it adjusts to lower light levels.

Inspect the plants carefully. Take them out of their pots to see if anything has crawled in through the drainage holes. Soaking the pot in a tub of lukewarm water for about 15 minutes will force insects out of the soil. If ants, snails, earthworms, or other insects burrowed into the soil, you might want to repot the plants. Wash the leaves and stems with the hose to remove dirt and insects. Allow them time to dry, and spray the entire plant, soil and pot with an insecticidal soap following the label directions. Reapply insecticidal soap 10 days later in case any eggs have hatched.

If necessary, move plants into larger containers. If plants have gotten leggy during their outdoor stay, remove them from the container, and prune the canopy and roots in equal proportions. Scrub the pot, add fresh bagged potting soil (not garden soil) and repot. This also is a good time to take cuttings of annual flowers, such as impatiens, begonias, geraniums, and coleus. They root easily in water or sand, and make attractive houseplants. This is a good way to overwinter them for planting in the garden next year. Or, you can just dig and pot a few annual plants, and enjoy their flowers for many more weeks indoors.

One of the saddest things for a gardener to witness is the death of their favorite annuals when we get that first hard freeze. For those of you who love geraniums, I recently read about a new technique you might want to try. Geraniums have thick, succulent stems which give them the ability to survive through the winter without soil. To over winter geraniums in a dormant state, dig up the entire plant before frost and gently shake the soil from the roots. Hang the plants upside-down from the rafters in your attic or in the basement where it is cool and dark. For best results, the temperature should be 45 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Two or three times during the winter, take the plants down from the rafters and soak the roots in water for 1 or 2 hours. Don't be concerned if the foliage dies and falls off, as long as the stems remain firm and solid. Squishy or shriveled stems should be removed. In March or April, pot up the remaining healthy geraniums in containers. Water them well and prune out any dead stem tips. Place potted plants in a sunny window to encourage new growth. After the danger of frost has passed, plant the geraniums outdoors.

Autumn is the ideal time to plant trees and shrubs. Planting in the fall gives them plenty of time to get established before the weather gets hot in the summer. It's a little too dry to plant anything just yet but hopefully the rain will come soon so fall planting will be feasible.  In winter, tree injury can occur from intense sun on the trunk during the day and dramatic temperature drops at night, causing the tree trunk to split. This type of injury is frequently referred to as sunscald. Young, newly planted trees should be wrapped with tree wrap before Thanksgiving to protect them for the first two or three years. The need for wrapping decreases as the tree ages and the bark 'thickens.' Sapling fruit trees are vulnerable to sunscald, as well as lindens, honey locusts, ashes, oaks, maples, and willows. Just be sure to remove the wrapping each spring.