keeping geraniums (and other pot plants) over winter

Just what I'm trying to find out. Have read something about paper and I am about to re-read on Google snap.

Cut right down keep in a light airy cold room and water sparingly, they should be OK then

I've given up bothering. They always look so scarily dead halfway through the winter. Just splash out on new ones.

They make a mess when the leaves go brown and fall off.

How far is right down whitewave? It's probably different in the Algarve anyway but I find that my older ones always seem to have some scraggy old growth at the bottom of them. I think I'm scared to cut them low enough.

It's a bit hit and miss; I have tried the newspaper method and leaving them in an unheated shed, tried putting pots into an unheated greenhouse and watering sparingly. Sometimes they survive and sometimes they don't. Last year some larger geraniums (pelargoniums, I suppose they are technically) in large pots survived the winter outside in a sheltered place just outside the house - facing east!

Apparently we are in for a very cold winter so if they don't survive I'll have to buy small plants in late spring and bring them on.

I'm going to try the newsaper thing - I read you should check on them a couple of times and water them - I usually forget till Spring.

What about bedding dahlias? do they gradually make corms, or is that a different type of dahlia.

My neighbour keeps hers in the ground but just spreads some straw over them. Not too pretty, and may not survive if we get predicted bad winter.

My dahlia plants which were spectacular last year made corms so I just left them in the pots, repotted with fresh soil in late spring.
They were absolute rubbish this year.

I have been amazed by how my geraniums in containers on the patio come back from what looks like a few dry twigs year after year. They die off, I cut them back and leave them and come next spring they grow back and flower again. Great big bushes of them. But then I am in the comparatively warmer South East.

I've tried several times to keep geraniums in newspaper over winter, but never succeeded- always went mouldy.

Just above a knod ( not sure how to spell that) they will look rubbish all winter, but about May you can pot them up and hey presto!!!!

A nodule?

Stop watering them and cut them right back. Maybe 3" high? Put them somewhere dry, but light, in their pots, and if it's unheated cover them with something like an old net curtain kept just off them, propped up by sticks so that the fabric, or membrane (you can get a white slightly see-through soft one for doing just this) doesn't touch the plants.

Water lightly perhaps just once a month, more when new leaves start to emerge.

I don't know why they didn't live in the utility room. Did they go mouldy, was it too humid?

Mine usually survive in a light( 2 windows) shed, up off the floor, on a ledge away from droughts.Cut all flowers off, hardly water, and they are fine for the next year.

In pots of soil, not in newspaper, that is.

I could try mine in the shed instead of the greenhouse. It could be a bit warmer.
However, the shed is very small and there are spiders in there.

The pelargoniums will not mind the spiders.

Spiders??????

I've tried the newspaper thing and it didn't work for me. I have however managed to keep them alive in sheds and greenhouses using the above method, so stick to it.

Yes, spiders may be involved....

In which case you may prefer to bring them indoors, cut them back a bit and treat them as houseplants on sunny windowsills.

Someone mentioned the pelargoniums may need watering occasionally - I would have to negotiate the spiders and their webs.

They can take their chances outside.

I have never had success at over wintering them either in the house or in the shed.

One year they survived in SW Scotland being neglected and left outside in their pots!!

This year I've taken cuttings to see if they do any better. Other than that I buy new each year.

I once grew them from seed, that was quite successful.

x

I have two large pots of geraniums that have been going strong now for five years. When the frosts start I just drag the pots into the shed (it's quite light in there) and forget about them. At some point during the winter I cut off all the, by then, sad-looking dead stuff almost down to the soil and give them a little water. Start to water occasionally in early spring then drag them out again when the weather warms up. Give them a few weeks to adjust to the new season and then they flower prolifically all summer, they're still flowering now. Benign neglect seems to work for me although I'm sure they will give up eventually especially as I never remember to feed them and haven't ever changed the soil. The hedgehog which overwinters in the shed doesn't seem to mind them, or my begonia corms which I do take out of the pots but don't wrap up, just leave to 'air' over the winter on a large tray. Spiders?? Probably somewhere but they don't eat much...

Talking of spiders, just went in kittens overnight room, and there's just one big spider leg on carpet! Obviously they disposed of the rest ugghh.

Good idea about cuttings - I'm going to take a few and keep them on windowsill in utility room.

I also have a few perennials that have seeded themselves in gravel drive - must move some to flowerbed.

Our silver birch has also dropped some seeds that have grown into little trees, really pleased about that - so we are now transplanting them to make a little copse (well 7 of them) Love free plants.

Not quite on the subject, but I have also taken cuttings from bought bunches of spray carnations. I just stripped of a non flowering stem, removed all but a couple of top leaves, cut just below a node, put in some rooting powder and planted in small pots.

There seems to be roots at the bottom now. Hope they over winter. This way you can choose the colours and it's so cheap!

x

Taking cuttings is the recommended method but I just keep most of mine in the unheated greenhouse cutting back if they look too leggy and removing dead leaves/flower stalks as they appear. Keep them dry(ish) so they don't go mouldy. I'll have a few in the house for continuous flowering. Carnations get the same treatment.