Wintered Plants, Beware

Sunburning Wintered Plants

This is what sunburn looks like on an Airplane Plant and an Aloe Vera cactus:

 This past winter was my first time to winter plants in my house. I took some to work and borrowed generous windowsills there, but my biggest plant, the Airplane plant, had to make due with being shuffled between the windowless laundry room, a back bedroom, and the porch (on warmer days).

 The Aloe was wintered in a north facing window, and when I brought it home this spring I placed it under my carport on a table. It sat there last summer and did very well. The next afternoon, I came home and the whole thing had turned brown, like above. It didn't occur to me til then that my carport was open to the east and the south. Oopse. If I turned the plant around the other way, so the opposite side was facing out, it was bright green. Oh yes, my Aloe had tan lines.

The airplane plant got scorched because I let the cool weather fool me into thinking it wouldn't hurt to sit it out in the full sun. Ah well. Lesson learned.