On the first sub-freezing day in Brooklyn, catastrophe struck. I woke up to find that the leaves on my pothos and Chinese Money Plant were wilted and wrinkled in a way that could indicate a lack of water—or a potentially deadly lack of heat. I immediately moved the stricken plants to another corner of the room, away from the windows. Notably, my Tricolor Stromanthe, string of hearts, and succulents still looked perky—and have continued to since. My super high-tech strategy was to place the damaged plants on the ground, below the windowsill, with one of my grow lights pointed directly at them. Then I waited to see the damage. Pothos are notoriously hardy, so I was surprised my plant had such a dramatic reaction in the first place. But soon it bounced back, and only about a sixth of its leaves yellowed and died. My pilea wasn’t as lucky. The round leaves that once spread out to completely hide the stem were now all but gone. The plant lost more than three-quarters of its foliage, and only the newest leaves remain at the top with a sad, bare stalk beneath them. I asked plant sellers how they handle this problem—after all, having plants in the window is a key sales technique. Here’s what they say*: The advice boils down to this: do prior research on which of your plants are most vulnerable and move them away from the window when you know it’s going to get cold—especially if you don’t have great insulation. “Prevention involves evaluating your space ahead of time,” says Johanna Oosterwyk, greenhouse manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Horticulture. “Not just for light, but for drafts and low humidity.” Heating the area is obviously an option. But heaters dry plants out, so you’ll need a humidifier. And if you move a plant away from the window, it’s going to need more light. The whole situation is a many-layered “if you give a mouse a cookie” situation. My plants look like they are going to survive in their non-ideal spot below the window. Now all there is to do is wait until spring. *These interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.
