By Andy001
Hampshire,
United Kingdom 
I think I may have just witnessed a miracle. I am not a gardener so please can someone tell me if this is possible or if I have just witnessed something supernatural. I have a Photina Red Robin potted plant which I bought last summer. For the winter I brought it indoors for the last few months. The leaves recently have turned brown and hard. I thought it was dying from being in the warm house and lack of light. This morning (2nd March) as the sun was out I thought it was time to take it back outside as Spring seems to be in the air. I placed it on my patio at 9am - it is a bright day here in Hampshire - but the plant was not in direct sunlight. I have just been out into my garden again at 10.30 am and I was astonished to see that the plant had sprouted many fresh new soft green leaves. Not just little leaves sprouting out, but fully formed leaves on several of the branches of the plant. I counted them and there were about 40 fully formed full size green leaves and numerous smaller ones, not quite full size. I can tell from the shoots on the branches that they are fresh and new. This happened in just 90 minutes! If I had sat out in the garden I would have literally seen them grow! Is this possible, is it known that this plant can grow incredibly fast or is this some sort of miracle? (I am not religious at all by the way). Please someone tell me!
2 Mar, 2010
Answers
Accept the miracle Andy, isn't nature wonderful?
3 Mar, 2010
Previous question
First, let me say that this plant is hardy and as long as the pot didn't stay frozen solid for more than fortnight, it would have survived perfectly well outside. Now that you've had it inside though, you will need to harden it off before leaving outside full time, and you do that by leaving it out for a few hours during daylight and bringing it in at night, then choose a less cold night to leave it out all the time, then move it fully out in the open, away from the protection of the house wall.
I'd imagine what's happened is that those leaves were already present on the plant, but hadn't unfurled and opened themselves, and you hadn't noticed them. Please also note that new leaves on this plant should be red, not green - the soft green growth you have is probably a result of its being kept indoors all winter. A miracle? Yes, in a way - it's life!
2 Mar, 2010