Grow Your Own Magazine

Help! I'm a newbie at this one!

I have six rather nice geranium plants in the new greenhouse. I assume they won't make it through the winter. So do I take cuttings of these plants now? Do I need to keep them inside?

Grateful for help on this one. Thanks

Hi Jennie,

Geraniums need to be kept frost free and dry over the winter. Mine are growing in the ground outside and before the frost arrives I will lift and pot them, cut them back a bit and take them inside. Mine go in a frost free shed. No need to do much watering and in the Spring when they show signs of growth start watering them and move them to somewhere warm. When the shoots are long enough you can take cuttings. I don't throw out the old plant but put it in the flower bed for a bit of space filling and colour. But then I never throw any plants away I find a home for them somewhere, or am I just tight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are we talking pelargoniums here or geraniums? If it is the fore, then you need to take cuttings earlier in the year but you would probably get away with them now. You need to store them undercover by removing all the foliage leaving 4"-6" of stalk, then repot with the others in a box around 6" deep and cover with compost - water in and only water again over winter if it dried out. If it is a geranium (a native of northern europe), it will overwinter outdoors and will do okay, if you want to take cuttings, your too late but you can give it a try but they do tend to seed pretty well around the garden.

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Best wishes
Andrewo
Harbinger of Rhubarb tales

I'm lucky JA as my greenhouse is kept frost free, but I take mine any time now & over winter them. They don't make a lot of growth if kept cool & dry, so if you put about 6 or 7 in a 6" half pot they will be OK in that till the spring when you can give them a bit of a feed & a water & bring them in to some where warmer & then take the cuttings off them.

You ca lift the old plants, pot them up & put them in a frost free shed over winter & they may well survive.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Thanks very much for all your advice. I think they are geraniums, but I'll check that they are not pelagoniums.

No need to check JA they are Zonal leaved pelargoniums that your taling about but very one calls them geraniums True Geraniums are the Cranesbill's type usually Blue or pink.

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Thanks Nick. They are definately not Cranesbill Geraniums as they are out in the garden all year. These are what I would call "conservatory" geraniums. They came as a greenhouse warming present! So not sure what they are as there was no label!

Can't you dry store pelagoniums somehow? I'm sure my grandad used to do cut them back and put them in a box with either straw or dry compost / sand (I really should have been more observant as a child!). Can anybody let me know if I imagined all this and provide any more detail? Never tried it myself as I can't quite remember but could be worth a try if somebody can fill in the gaps.

No you didn't imagine it. Treat them like Dahlia tubers but you may loos one or two over the winter.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Thanks for that Nick, however don't grow dahlias so don't know how I should store them!

Ahhh, good point. Frost free & on the dry side

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

I'm a newbie but I have been trying to keep pelagoniums though the winter for a few years now - not very successfully. Last year, I had an experiment. I put some in pots in my old, definitely not frost free greenhouse (broken panes of glass etc), some I dug up, shook off all the soil and then placed in a tray in the summerhouse (didn't cover them with anything) and some I left in the garden. I managed to save a few using each of the methods and couldn't really decide which was the best. However, the ones I left in the garden thrived more during the summer. I'm not going to bother lifting any this year. I live just south of London so its hardly costa del sol!
Jools

Why not take cuttings from them all and overwinter them in the greenhouse. Just wrap the pot in bubble wrap or fleece and cover with fleece or newspaper if you don't have fleece. I find thats the best way and if the ones you leave in the garden survive so much the better.