Gardeners’ Forum: “Winterizing Geraniums”
Back to Gardeners’ ForumWinterizing Geraniums
Posted by Kathie on Sunday, October 1, 2006 11:55 am ADTJust wondering what everyone does to over winterize their geraniums. I have so many, but do not have window space to keep them all in the sun. Any suggestions?
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Wendy on Friday, October 6, 2006 8:00 pm ADTTry this: Once finished for the season, prune your potted geraniums (get rid of dead leaves, etc) and place them in their pot in your basement (let them dry out). Pay no attention to plants until March or so, then bring the pot out into a warm, sunny location, and water regularly. Within a few weeks, you will see new growth. Re-pot and enjoy for another summer! Or, try this: uproot the geraniums you wish to save and hang them (roots included)in a dark, dry place in your basement for the winter. In the spring, re-pot, and water regularly. I have had great luck with the first method and, on at least one occasion, did not even add new soil the second year (although I would recommend it). Good luck!
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Shirley Sniher on Saturday, October 7, 2006 6:41 pm ADTDig geraniums before a killing frost. Shake any loose dirt off the roots and lay them out to dry in the garage in a single layer for about 3 or 4 days . Then put the whole plant in a paper bag.I fold over the top and hang them (with pant hangers) in a storage closet in the basement.Around Feb. or March they can be brought out and potted up with fresh potting soil, watered and put in a sunny window. Don't be fooled by their dead appearance, they will soon start to send out new leaves from the life stored within their thick stems. You can trim them back when potting to a more pleasing shape. Works for me.
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by joe obrien on Friday, October 13, 2006 8:09 pm ADTstay tuned - I have a tremendous amount of Geraniums that I grew from seeds and i hate the thought of letting them be slaughtered by a New York winter. I also dont have the space to place a lot of potted plants to sit for a few months. so i am going to try your method , assuming i can find a brown paper bag somewhere - everything is plastic these days !~ stay tuned I will get back to you in March or April regards Joe O'Brien staten island - new york
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Dean P on Sunday, October 22, 2006 11:24 am ADTI use cardboard boxes to store my geraniums in. You can stack them if neededd, and I keep them in an unheated driveunder attached garage. It works really well with temps averaging 55-65. Remove dirt from roots and dead leaves. Probably 90-95% survival rate. Be sure to start checking them in mid-Feb. With any signs of green its time to repot them with watering and light until safe for outdoors. This year I am labeling w/plant details.
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by p on Saturday, September 1, 2007 6:19 am ADThelp! im a brit living in Rome,Italy..Do you think I need to take my geraniums inside for the winter? We don't get a frost. I was told that re potting would be enough, any thoughts?
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Patty G on Sunday, September 16, 2007 1:39 pm ADTJust wondering how 2006's geraniums made out in 2007 spring? It is that time of year again and I have wonderul geraniums plants and want to keep them until next year
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Gail on Monday, September 24, 2007 3:08 pm ADTI Have a lot of geraniums in a barrel planter on my upper deck area, I have heard that you can invert a heavy black plastic pot over top of them for protection from the wind and elements and they will regrow again in the spring, have you ever heard of this being done?
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by DKM on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 5:30 pm ADTAbout the Geramium is Rome: I lived in Southern Califronia most of my life. It has what they call a Mediteranium cilamte. Over the winter we didn't do much of anything to the geraniums. Basically ignored them. Left them in pots or in the ground. Come spring, we cut them back (got rid of dead/dry stuff). They always came out just fine. Many plants went through 10+ years like this. When cutting back, anything green was struck in the ground to root and make a new plant.
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Susan on Monday, November 12, 2007 3:43 pm ASTI am trying the brown bag method of winterizing geraniums for the first time. 2 weeks have passed and there is still lots of green leaves on them. Do I wait or pluck them off? or cut the plant right back? I live in Ontario Canada.
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Alex Mounsteven on Saturday, April 5, 2008 7:42 pm ADTi'm trying this for the first time and went with method two... i had four plants with a spectaular pink/purple colour i wanted to preserve... so i put them in a bag in the garage (hung upside down) until last week when i brought them in... i trimmed back the stems and planted them in 'miracle gro' earth... watered them well (once)... and put them in a window... its been 4 days.. and two of the plants have mould around the stem... *why*
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by margaret on Friday, September 26, 2008 8:09 pm ADTdoes anyone know if you can winterize ivy geraniums and if so how do i do it?
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Vanessa on Monday, September 29, 2008 11:10 am ADTRead the discussion so far, an Ivy Geranium is treated the same way as a regular geranium. Here's what Veseys has to say on the subject: http://www.veseys.com/ca/en/about/website/faq/#question22
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Virginia Bain on Monday, October 20, 2008 3:29 pm ADTI have winterized my geraniums by brown bag before and it works well. If you can't find paper bags just use newspaper to wrap each geranium in and wrap twine or string around the stem part and hang them upside down in the basement.
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by rosemary on Monday, October 27, 2008 2:07 am ADTI love the idea of storing the geraniums in a brown bag over the winter. My basement is where my oil burner is and may be to warm?? If so I will try my garage. Just half of them the bag/way the other half in pots just to make sure I don't lose them all.
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by edie hampton on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 3:33 pm ASTI live in the seattle area temp in winter around freezing,got 25 georgeous geraniums could I put them in unheated garage for the winter?w/no light water or not?
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Betrty on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 1:38 am ADTI didn't know how to winterize geraniums so I took them out of the dirt and put them in glass jars filled with water in my basement which is cool and near natural light. Will these plants rebloom in summer when I repot them in dirt? One geranium has buds so I was hopeful until I read that they needed to be in paper bags! Need advice.
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Irene on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 2:46 pm ADTI have a home that does not have a basement, how do you suggest I prepare geraniums for winter storage?Your help will be appreciated Thanks
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Phyliss on Sunday, September 27, 2009 9:43 am ADTI hang my pots in my basement sunroom and have had mixed results. My question is should I water them over the winter?
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Loretta on Monday, September 28, 2009 10:29 am ADTI too don't have a basement and live in a very small home with no closets! But after reading all the suggestions I'm going to try this: dry the geraniums (it's raining today) wrap each individually in newspaper then place in a cardboard box in a room that is used very little and is on the cool side and is quite dark.
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Joan Erickson on Thursday, October 1, 2009 7:14 am ADTIf I put mt geraniums in a brown paper bsg for the winter do I need to water them?
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by lois monroe on Monday, November 2, 2009 5:41 pm ASTI have dug up the geraniums after two frosts, put them in pots and sat them in the basement on pallets. I want to try method one but I noticed some small worms as I placed them in the pots. Will this make any difference since I will not be watering them?
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by sharon weiner on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 6:12 pm ASTI am trying to save geraniums over the winter in NJ. They are from my mom who recently passed away and I would love to keep them blooming for years to come. Suggestions? Have a garage no basement
re: Winterizing Geraniums
Posted by Pauline on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 3:06 pm ASTI had success by accident. I left the geraniums, out of pots in a bin in my hallway over the winter. It was dark and coolish and I never watered them. They started to leaf and bloom in Feb/March and are still very much alive.
