Lemon Grass Ready To Move Indoors

Lemon Grass is a native plant in India.  Growing there in climate zone 9 or 10, it will reach four feet in height.  We have kept this plant alive in rather cold conditions for a number of years.  Winters are passed indoors where we heat heat the house to 68 degrees.  Two plants are placed on the landing midway up the stairs from the basement.  A mostly glass entry door provides the plants near it to enjoy generous amounts of sunshine.  The extra distance to the ceiling creates strong air currents which seem to benefit the plants.  The other two plants are placed on a work table directly in front of the three bedroom windows.  These plants have a rather tidy growing habit so they create little liter.  Each pot is placed in a plastic dishpan so that generous amounts of water can be given to the plants.

These plants grow to a size that makes placing them in three gallon pots difficult.  Our habit is to divide the monsters so that we always have reasonably sized plants to lug around.  We were late in getting to breaking apart the overwintered plants and their condition was poor.  Seven plants were set out in a garden bed in late June and we expected several of them to simply die.  All seven grew into impressively healthy specimens.  We only have room to bring four indoors so we must make an effort to harvest the remaining plants.  Fresh leaves are used to make tea but we do not dry any.  We have fresh leaves all winter long so why bother drying leaves?

Here the chosen four will make the transition to life in a pot.  The shade garden protects the new transplants from full sun.  Now we need to stay aware of coming weather so that these plants can be moved indoors ahead of the first frost.  We really do garden to some degree all year.  We need to be more aware of this wonderful experience and enjoy it to the fullest.

This plant came through last winter in excellent condition.  When the risk of frost had passed, this plant was removed from its pot and planted in the shade garden.  It has given us fresh leaves for tea all summer but its end is near.  Anyone with greenhouse space is welcome to provide this plant with a winter home. You will need a five gallon bucket and a strong back.  We do not deliver!