Outdoor Garden Plants Grown Indoors
Outdoor garden plants come in all shapes and sizes, from flowering annuals and perennials to small shrubs and large trees. Not all outdoor garden plants are suitable for growing indoors. Many of them need specific conditions or seasonal temperature changes to perform their best, and others will simply grow too big for an indoor space.
It’s important to get to know the preferred growing conditions and growth habits of the plants you’re considering for your indoor garden before you bring them home. You’ll need to match their needs with the conditions—and physical space—you can provide for them.
Categories of Plants Based on Their Lifespan
- Annual: A plant that grows from seed, flowers, sets seed, then dies in one year or growing season.
- Biennial: A plant that grows foliage from seed its first year, overwinters, and in its second year (i.e., the following spring) it grows a flower, sets seed, and then dies.
- Perennial: A plant that grows for many years, including trees, shrubs, and flowering and foliage plants. Trees and shrubs can be evergreen (they keep their leaves over the winter) or deciduous (they lose their leaves in the fall and grow new ones the following spring). Smaller perennials can be evergreen (they don’t die back for the winter) or herbaceous (their tops die back for the winter and regrow from an underground crown the following spring).
1. Annuals Grown as Houseplants
The botanical definition of an annual plant completes its entire life cycle from seed to new seed all in one growing season. Annuals are most often grown for their beautiful show of summer flowers or as edible crops.
What gets confusing is that many of the summer-flowering plants sold in garden centres are labelled “annual” when in fact they’re not. These mislabelled plants are, botanically speaking, perennials; in their frost-free native habitats they grow back year after year. These perennials are often sold and treated as annuals in cooler plant hardiness zones where they wouldn’t survive the freezing winter temperatures. They’re grown for their summer display of flowers or colorful foliage and then discarded at the end of the season when cooler temperatures arrive.
This guide will review some common flowering annuals available on the market – including some of the mislabelled perennials – and how you might incorporate them into your indoor garden.
2. Outdoor Perennials Grown as Houseplants
Perennials are defined as plants that live for more than two years. In the world of gardening, the term is also used to refer to smaller plants that stay under about 3-4 feet (90-120 cm) and don’t develop rigid woody stems or trunks. Shrubs are those plants that develop rigid woody stems or trunks and grow up to about 10 feet (3 m) tall. Trees are plants that grow over 10 feet (3 m) tall and have rigid woody trunks.
Choosing perennials, shrubs and trees traditionally grown outdoors to grow indoors instead requires careful attention to the plant’s growth habits and what growing conditions it needs to thrive. Not all outdoor garden plants will be suitable for growing indoors.
This guide will review the different types of perennials, shrubs and trees, and how to choose ones you can incorporate into your indoor garden
3. Flowering Bulbs
Flowering bulbs are a popular way to brighten up our indoor spaces, especially during the winter in regions that experience below-freezing temperatures. Many florists offer potted spring-flowering daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips or summer-flowering lilies for sale from December through April.
Learn the differences between bulb types, how to care for them, and how to force spring-flowering bulbs for an out-of-season indoor display.