Your plants should be pruned to around two-thirds of their original size after being brought indoors to promote fresh growth.
Light
For geraniums to flower, strong light is necessary. Plants should be placed in a bright window with additional lighting if necessary. The best source of light is typically one that faces south. If your house lacks a sunny window, you can add extra lighting, such as:
a standard fluorescent tube light that is occasionally referred to as a “shop light,” suspended 10 to 12 inches above the plants. accessible at hardware and home improvement stores.
An LED grow lamp that predominantly has red bulbs to promote flower buds and blue bulbs to promote foliage growth. accessible in specialty stores, online, or garden centers.
If growing in a place with less natural light, set a timer to offer additional light from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. or longer.
Watering
- Before watering a plant, always feel the soil.
- Don’t water the soil if it seems cool and moist; instead, wait a few days before checking.
- It’s time to water if the soil feels dry to the touch.
- Ensure that the pot drains properly.
- When watering, place your plant in a sink so that any extra water can drain away without creating a mess.
- To safeguard furniture, place a saucer underneath your pot.
- A coaster, trivet, or other surface should be placed underneath an unglazed clay saucer if you use one since clay can grow damp and harm wood.
Fertilizing
Geraniums don’t need a lot of nutrients to grow well, and over-fertilizing will result in poor blooming.
- Only fertilize when you notice active growth (new leaves, buds, stems).
- Combine water and an all-purpose fertilizer that is water soluble at half the recommended strength. Apply during active growth every three weeks or so.
- Never feed a plant that is wilting or dry. Apply ordinary water first to the plant’s roots to keep them moist, and then fertilizer-infused water.
Pruning
When growing geraniums inside, they can sometimes get “leggy. Long voids between the leaf nodes are created on stems as a result of limited light (the point where a leaf grows out from the stem). Trim or “Just above a leaf node, pinch back stems to encourage new growth and a stocky, well-branched plant.
Geraniums can be kept as potted or bare root plants from year to year. It works best to store them in a heated garage or chilly basement (about 45-50F).
Storing potted geraniums
- Before the frost, place items in dark storage.
- About once every month, water.
- Put a potted plant in a sunny window in the early spring. Clean up the soil of plant detritus, trim dead stems and leaves, and start watering frequently. Wait to fertilize until new growth appears.
Storing bare root geraniums
- Plants from your garden or pots should be dug up.
- Roots should be free of extra soil.
- They can be hung from shelves, racks, rafters, etc. Periodically remove the plants, soak the roots in water for a few hours, and then hang them back up. To keep them from entirely drying out over the winter, repeat this multiple times.
- Early in the spring, pot your geraniums and place them in a sunny window until the threat of frost has passed.
- It can be difficult to overwinter bare root geraniums. A chilly, damp basement or root cellar is required to store bare-root geraniums. It does, however, show how resilient these plants are. Try out different plants. In case you lose the original plants, take cuttings.
From cuttings
Large plants may occasionally be unable to overwinter in a home due to a lack of room or light. Cuttings from the geranium plant can be used to grow new, smaller plants for the next spring instead of transferring the entire plant indoors.
Cuttings can be taken at any time of the year, and geraniums are simple to produce. To root your cuttings, use pots or cell trays filled with a growing media such peat moss, sand, or perlite. Additionally, you may buy propagation blocks from specialty shops and online.
- Only healthy, disease-free plants should be used for cuttings, and a sharp pruner or knife should be used.
Fill the pot or tray with water after dampening the growing media. Make holes for the cuttings in each cell or spaced two or three inches apart.
Cut end should be dipped in water, then powdered root hormone (can be purchased at a garden center). Rooting hormone encourages rapid and dense root growth.
Carefully place the cutting in the perforations, being careful not to knock off the powder containing the rooting hormone. Make sure to place a leaf node in the soil since roots will develop at the leaf/stem junction.
Place until rooted in a north or east window or next to a light source. Three to four weeks are often needed for this.
Keep the growing medium moist to prevent the cuttings from drying out.
Some people cover the container with a partially open plastic bag to prevent water loss, but this can also cause mildew and impede airflow.
In about three weeks, check for roots on the cuttings. Lift the cuttings gently from the medium with a chopstick, pencil, or popsicle stick, being careful not to pull them. Replant the cutting carefully in the growing medium if additional roots are required. After another week, recheck the medium for roots while continuing to keep it moist.
Plant the cuttings in individual pots once they have taken root using sterile potting soil to which an all-purpose delayed release fertilizer has been applied. Put them in a window with good light. If more lighting is required, place it six inches above the plants and make sure the soil is evenly moist.
From seeds
You may buy seeds for annual geraniums online from seed vendors. Geranium seeds take one to three weeks to grow, depending on the cultivar. About three to four months pass from the moment the seed is planted until it may be planted outside.
Plant seeds in trays or “flats” that have seed starting mix inside of them. Mix should hardly cover the seed.
Place the flat in bright, indirect light at 75 degrees Fahrenheit with a clear cover over it. For bottom heating, you can either lay the flat on top of the refrigerator or use a heat mat.
Move the seedlings once they have sprouted in an environment with fluorescent lighting, 70°F daytime temps, and 60°F nighttime minimums. Leave lights on for 16 to 20 hours each day, but only three or four inches above the growing plants.
Up to the point where they can be transplanted outside, keep giving them water and fertilizer.
Can geraniums be kept in pots during the winter?
Geraniums can be overwintered inside in three different ways: as a houseplant, as a dormant bare root, or as cuttings. Your decision will be influenced by the amount of room you have indoors and the range of temperatures you can tolerate. Here is a closer examination of each method.
Overwintering geraniums as houseplants
If you want to keep the entire potted plant and have lots of room close to a window that gets bright, direct light, go with this option. A drafty west-facing window would be the ideal place for your potted geranium to spend the winter because geraniums prefer it chilly (55 to 65 F is optimum).
Wash the foliage well with your hose and repot the plant in new potting soil to prevent bringing unwanted pests from outside. You might also use insecticidal soap, which is sold in most garden centers and hardware stores as well as online. Avoid taking the plant indoors if it shows any signs of pests or illness. Only strong plants have a chance of successfully overwintering indoors.
During the winter, keep the soil wet but not damp. No more humidity is required. If the stems begin to sag, pinch them back to keep the plant compact throughout the winter. When springtime comes around, you may start fertilizing once more and transfer the plant back outside as soon as the temperature reliably rises above 50 F.
Overwintering geraniums as dormant bare root plants
This is the most typical way to overwinter geraniums, but it won’t work unless you have a dark, dry place that stays around 50 degrees throughout the winter.
First, dig up your geranium before it freezes and shake the dirt off the roots. To stop mold from forming, let the plant sit and dry for a few days before storage. Before moving onto the following phase, the roots must be completely dry.
The roots should be kept in a dark, dry place that doesn’t get colder than 45 degrees throughout the winter. Geranium roots should be kept at a temperature of 50 F. You can keep them by doing:
- It has been customary for generations to hang the plants upside-down from the rafters;
- placing them on a shelf after wrapping them in newspaper or a paper bag;
- they were put in a cardboard box.
Step 3: Every month or so, look for mold, black leaves, or limp stems at the roots. Remove any plant or root components that are harmful. Most of the stems should endure the winter in good shape. Before re-storing them if they become too wilted, give them a good bath in water and let them air dry.
Step 4: Reviving your geraniums involves cleaning them up, pruning the stems back to healthy green growth, and replanting them in new potting soil about six weeks before your final frost date. Where the new roots will grow, bury the stems two nodes deep. When you notice fresh growth in one to two weeks, keep the plants somewhat dry; after that, keep the soil moist until the plants are big enough to replant outside.
Overwintering geraniums as cuttings
If your light windowsill area is limited or you are concerned that bringing in your entire potted plant would also attract unwanted bugs, this is a nice technique to try. Additionally, it’s a fantastic way to multiply your existing geraniums.
To trim plants, you’ll need:
- a cutting edge.
- Most hardware stores and garden centers sell rooting hormone, which is sold online.
- Use little terracotta or plastic pots, or recycle a clear takeaway container for roasted chicken.
- If you don’t eat chicken, use clear plastic bags to cover the pans.
For the winter, should geraniums be pruned back?
You should prune a perennial geranium after it has bloomed all season and starts to wither. This helps the plant store energy for the spring while simultaneously keeping it dormant for the winter. This could need to happen any time between August and late October, depending on your zone. Cut perennial geraniums down to 2 or 3 inches above the soil with a pair of trustworthy shears, ideally at nodes or new growth points. Take out any more flowers or foliage. You’ll have a collection of thick stems that is really ugly. But don’t panic, your blooms will return in full bloom the following spring.
Next year, how can I preserve geraniums?
Geraniums have the advantage of easily entering dormancy, allowing for storage in a manner akin to that of sensitive bulbs. This method of storing geraniums for the winter entails digging the plant up in the fall and carefully removing the soil from the roots. The roots should not be spotless, just clear of dirt clumps.
In a room with a constant temperature of roughly 50 degrees Fahrenheit, such as your garage or basement, hang the plants upside down (10 C.). Rehang the geranium plant after soaking the roots in water for an hour once a month. All of the leaves on the geranium will fall off, but the stems will still be alive. Replant the dormant geraniums in the ground in the spring, and they will come to life.
How should geraniums be wintered over?
Geraniums are incredibly simple to store for the winter—just place them in a cardboard box or a paper bag and secure the top. The following advice will help them survive:
- Maintain geraniums in a cool, dry area with a temperature of 50 to 60 degrees F.
- Once a month or so, remove dried leaves from the bag or box and check for mold.
- Check the stems quickly at the same time; they should be stiff. Throw away any dried-out, shriveled stems you uncover.
- If you see that the plants are becoming really dry and crispy, give them a brief soak in water.
- Plants with stems that appear to be blackened or mildewed should be disposed away.
Geraniums are typically kept in a sack upside down. Although the exact cause is unknown, one idea holds that it does so by pushing moisture into the stems. Whatever the cause, storing them in this manner is neither harmful nor necessarily harmful.
When should I trim my geraniums back?
reducing after blossoming After flowering, early-flowering perennials like geraniums and delphiniums are pruned to almost ground level to promote new growth and late-summer blooming. Then, in the fall or spring, these are again pruned.
When should geraniums be wakened from dormancy?
Dormant, full-size geranium plants can be overwintered in the same way as animals hibernate during the winter and then come out of it in the spring.
Steps to Overwintering Dormant Geraniums
- Before the first frost, transplant the geraniums into containers and prune the plant back by about half. Dehydrate the soil in the pot.
- Put a paper bag on top of each plant and turn it over.
- Containers for dormant plants should be kept in a garage or basement that is chilly, unheated, and slightly damp.
- Every few weeks, check the geraniums to make sure the stems and leaves are not shriveling. Spray them with water or mist the roots if they start to show signs of drying out. After that, let the plant thoroughly dry before putting it back in the paper bag.
Reviving Dormant Geraniums
- Relocate your dormant geraniums to indirect light around 6–8 weeks before the final anticipated frost.
- Trim any dead leaves from the plants, and cut stems back to a healthy, green growth.
- Give the potted plants a good soaking and some fertilizer that has been diluted.
How can leggy geraniums be reduced?
To let you see what I was removing from the stems, I brought a sample of them out onto the patio.
4. Keep trimming stems to establish the framework for the plant’s growth.
5. While pruning, don’t forget to take a step back and survey the plant. Any stems you don’t like should be cut off (I always end up cutting off a few more after I think I’m finished!). & prune any tips that are needed.