Geraniums

[goldenmeadow]

Hi,
is there any trick to keeping geraniums thru the winter ?
I live in N England so there will be nights of frost.
Ive got a greenhouse and a shed, but cant be bothered running
up and down lighting oil lamps.
There must be some trick of keeping say.... 80 geraniums
and getting them thru to the spring !

[Two_Sheds]

you mean tender ones, the pelargoniums? I keep mine indoors from Nov-April, on an east facing windowsill, just damp quite dry

I don't keep the mother plants, just the cuttings (I don't have a lot of room)

[sewer rat]

These really need to be kept warm - the books all say at least 10 celsius. I'm with TS though - stick with cuttings rather than the parent plant. Or at least, take cuttings so that if the mother plant dies, you still have its' babies to keep you going.

[Ananke]

I have my cuttings on windowsills too. This is my first year doing this so i'm certainly no expert but i'm wondering if you could just keep a few then take more cuttings from them in the spring?

[donnakebab]

My mom used to take them out of their pots, knock off the soil and wrap them in newspaper. She would then stack them (lying down) in a frost free shed. Don't know how successful she was!

[biggreenfingers]

I have to bring mine in otherwise they die in my unheated greenhouse. As the other posters state I stick with the cuttings due to space constraints. The one exception to the rule was this year. I had grown some pelargoniums from seed last spring. I had left one in the greenhouse over the autumn and winter and hadn't given it any attention at all. I just brought it in last week and gave it some water and hey presto it has sprung into life. Probably just lucky and also the fact that this winter hasn't been as cold as the last two winters.

[Gearoid]

I dug mine out and put them stacked in a row in an unused trough in a cool spot under the stairs. I checked on them last weekend and they all looked perfectly healthy. I'll bring them back out into the light and warmth, pot them up and see how well they do.

I normally leave them outside to die, but thought I'd try to overwinter them for once.

[Jardiniere]

I only grow mine in window boxes and pots so I cut them right back , stuff them all together in as few pots as possible and bring them inside and dont water them. I do this in November before the weather gets too bad... Some survive, some dont.