Pakistan Gardening Forum

During the last summers I bought dracaena sanderiana (ribbon plant), croton (3 differen types) and dieffenbachia. Winter was terrible for them, dieffenbachia & croten died and ribbon plant barely survived. As a new gardener I didn't know that these plants are for warn and humid area. I was bit pissed off that the nursery guy did not inform me of this fact since I could have brought these plants indoor to provide some level of protection.

Can you guys offer few tips on how to protect these plants in the winters of Rawalpindi? I love the colors of ribbon plant and croton but can't seem to protect them.

Sample pictures attached.

Better give up.

You can set up a small green house using plastic sheet at a place where it gets a lot of sun in the winter.The better option could be to plant something that tolerates winter.The world is full of beautiful plants.

tweedle2009 wrote:You can set up a small green house using plastic sheet at a place where it gets a lot of sun in the winter...

I think I can do this. Is using plastic sheet better or the green sheet that we see in nurseries? With transparent plastic at times the temperature rises significantly and plants start turning yellow. Further, do you have any experience of have a better luck by moving such plants inside during winter? I am sceptical about this option since in Pakistan we use gas heaters which results in significant temperature variation between day and night temperatures.

Dieffenbachia is good for humid climate like Karachi but I was having this plant in Wah Cantt, all that you need is a little care and having a green house is not a bad idea, you can use green sheet for that because it’s better than the transparent one. You can also save it by keeping the plant indoor in winter, where it can get some son light but safe from cold and in summer again put it in south east location.
but this is a fact that dieffenbachia is not successful in our climate, the nurseries keepers bring fresh every season and don’t let the customer know about its climatic sensitivity

what is price of green sheet?

Its not so expensive almost the same price as transparent one actually its been a long time I didn’t buy any sheet so I m not sure but one thing is for sure that its not so expensive

Regards
Hamad

Muhammad Arif Khan wrote:Better give up.

Indoor under artificial light is the other option.