Does anyone have experience with keeping geraniums for replanting the next spring? I'm going to try for the first time.
Hardiness Zone: 5a
By Jewell June Kurtz from Van Wert, OH
I have done that quite a few times and it works. Trim the plant to the size you want, then rinse it and make sure you rinse all the garden soil away from the roots (you don't want any bugs from the garden in your home), plant the geranium in your planter with potting soil and you'll have a geranium for indoors, it will even flower! Next year you just put it back in your garden or in a pot on the patio. Good luck!
I tried it once in our basement, but then grew tired of going down there to water. One word of caution if you have cats. Geraniums and many other outdoor plants are poisonous. That's why I can't keep ours inside except in the basement, where we lock them out. If you don't have cats, go for it. Here's a list of other poisonous plants as well--
www.cfainc.org/
The place where my daughter worked had some in a pot. Near spring they were almost dead from poor moisture in the air. However they survived a light frost when left out side. I trimmed it down and put some of the clippings in good quality potting soil. They started rooting and making new plants.
High humidity is a key part of them not drying up.
Zone 5a
I have overwintered my geraniums for the last 5 years. I live in the Buffalo,NY area so I pull them in before the first frost. They will last if you water them about 2 times a month. I have them near a window for light.
When I lived in CT. I would dig up the geraniums before the first frost. Hang them upside down from the rafters in the basement. I never watered them. Just left them hanging until spring when they started to green up. Then you pot them up in some good soil, and wait until it is safe to put them back out doors.
Don't get discouraged when you see them looking kind of dead like in the winter-they will come back in the spring! jjs
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
We live in hardiness zone 6a. My friend gave me some cut geraniums which rooted and are doing well in an outdoor container.
What do I have to do to have them survive the coming cold weather?
By Este
If your temps get below freezing, they will need to be brought in. I put them in pots and set in a window and enjoy blossoms during the winter, but you can also pull up the plants, knock off the soil and store them in a paper bag.
I would like to know how to protect geraniums through the winter. I have three planters of geraniums. I don't want the frost to kill them.
By Maxine
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
What's the best way to 'winter' all of my lovely geraniums?
