How To Winter Geraniums - SmileySprouts

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.

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.

How can you preserve geraniums for the next year?

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.

When should I cover my geraniums for the winter?

Make sure you thoroughly inspect your geranium plants before bringing them inside for the winter. Look for symptoms of pests and illnesses like rust and remove any dead leaves or wilting blossoms. Only zonal pelargoniums are impacted by this, but it is becoming more widespread. It arrived in the nation for the first time in 1968, and it does best in the moist summer or fall months. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to spread to the plants quickly and is simple to treat, so merely plucking the afflicted leaves is an effective management. You might also consider using the fungicide Dithane 945 as a spray.
Placing your overwintering plants somewhere bright and sunny will help them retain their need for light throughout the winter. Your plants will receive 50% less light if they are placed more than three feet from a window!
Because your plants continue to thrive throughout the winter, keep the roots moist. While geraniums frequently survive droughts, they rarely flourish. Show plant growers take special care to keep the roots of their plants damp but never soggy during the winter.
Ventilate as frequently as you can to maintain a dry environment surrounding your plants. Your plants will turn into a moldy, rotting heap if you don’t allow the air to circulate. The greatest electric fan heaters are those that operate automatically since they circulate air while simultaneously raising air temperature.
Geraniums are fairly inexpensive to overwinter in the greenhouse because they only need to be kept frost-free. To keep temperatures above freezing, however, we do advise utilizing a heater. Set the thermostat on your heater to 5C, which is 41F. The plant will not survive if the stems become frosty! The winter months are a great time to store your delicate pelargoniums in porches, sunrooms, or conservatories.

We hope that we have provided you with enough of tips so that you can continue to enjoy your geraniums year after year. Visit our geraniums hub page, which is brimming with useful resources, for additional details on how to cultivate and take care of these well-liked plants. And do get in touch with us through our social media outlets to share your personal favorites; we’d love to hear from you.

Can I store my geraniums for the following season?

Amazingly, annual geraniums (Pelargonium hybrids) thrive and flower wonderfully from spring till frost with little effort. The next spring, these resilient tiny plants will take off and grow once more if you dig them out in the fall and store them in a cardboard box or paper bag for the winter. Learn how to preserve your geraniums over the winter so you can enjoy them year after year by watching our video and reading the article below.

Should geraniums be pruned in the fall?

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.

Should leggy geranium plants be pruned?

Not sure what to do with geraniums that are too leggy? Aim to prune. You should prune your spindly geraniums by approximately a third before bringing them inside (often in late November). Make sure to get rid of any stems that are sick or dead as well. Geraniums that are too lanky can be pruned to keep them from overgrowing and looking unattractive.

Another method for tying up lanky plants is pinching. This is typically done to mature plants to encourage bushier growth. Once new growth has reached a couple inches (8 cm) high, pinch out around 1/2 to 1 inch (1-2.5 cm) from the tips. This can be done during active growth or soon after trimming.

How can winter geraniums be kept alive?

Geraniums can live for the majority of the winter without soil, which sets them apart from most annual flowers. Due to their thick, succulent-like stems, geraniums may withstand prolonged periods of dryness if they are handled correctly to prevent illness.

How to Store Geraniums

Before the first harsh cold of the season, remove the plant from its outdoor container and gently shake the soil from the roots.
Reduce the plant by roughly 50%, taking care to remove any unhealthy-looking growths, flowers, or dead leaves.
For the winter, pick a cool, dark spot, such as an unheated basement, garage, or shed. It is crucial that the temperature stay above 45 degrees F.
The plant should be hung or put in paper bags. If you decide on using bags, don’t close them too tightly; you want some air to flow through them. When geraniums are overwintered, mold can grow on them. When hanging plants, The Spruce advises leaving enough space between them so that air can flow around them.
Put tags (loosely) around the roots of your plants to identify them by color, or group them according to color while storing them.

Care for the Dormant Geraniums

Take the plants out of the bags and give the roots a 1- to 2-hour soak in warm water. I’ve seen some professionals advise doing this once a month, while others advise doing it a few times during the winter. Before putting the plant back in the paper bag, give it time to completely dry. THIS IS ESSENTIAL.
Even if the leaves are withering, check the geranium stems every two weeks to make sure they remain firm. You should discard any plants with withered stems right away. Anything with mold on it should be thrown away.

Reviving After Dormancy

Trim any dead stem tips, and get rid of any roots that are too lengthy.
Before potting, bare root plants can be given an extended soak in water to rehydrate the roots.
Six weeks before the last frost, plant geraniums.
When planting, bury the plant two leaf nodes deep in moist potting soil to encourage root development.
Give them plenty of water.
To reintroduce light and encourage fresh growth, place the newly planted geraniums in a sunny window. After inactive storage, it will probably take the plants 2-4 weeks before they begin to grow.

Will geraniums recover from freezing?

The geranium will keep any uninjured leaves and stems if the weather improves after a frost or freeze in the garden. Depending on the weather, it may start to develop again from the tip of the stem or go dormant until the right amount of warmth returns in the spring. Frost-killed leaves and stems turn black and dry, however there may be some rotting of soft stem tissue where dead tissue meets living, moist tissue.

Geranium plants cannot be subjected to frosts in order to be permanently evergreen, remaining alive with all of their leaves and stems.
When air temperatures dip and stay between 25 and 28 degrees Fahrenheit, plants can suffer significant damage or even die. The geranium will keep any uninjured leaves and stems if the weather improves after a frost or freeze in the garden.

Bring Inside as Houseplants

You can bring your potted geraniums (Pelargoniums) indoors for the winter if you have space for them in a sunny place.

While they require sunlight, they thrive in temperatures between 55 and 65 °F (12-18C). I have tremendous luck keeping the air around them a touch colder than the rest of the home with a west-facing window that is slightly drafty.

Dig Up and Repot if Desired

To make sure they are content, healthy, and bug-free, some preparation is needed.

Before the first frost, dig up and container your geraniums if they are in the ground.
If they are already in pots, you can repot them if you want, but first perform a rigorous pruning and a bug inspection (see below).
Trim any extremely long roots or any unkempt root balls before potting.
Put flowering plants in containers using potting soil made for them.

Hard Prune

Cutting back the entire plant by between one-third and half is an usual recommendation.
Any dead, broken, moldy, sick, or diseased pieces should also be taken out.
If the plant is otherwise good and healthy, you can try keeping any buds or blossoms even though this harsh pruning is ultimately ideal.

How are geraniums wintered in RHS?

Store them with just the plant’s crown—where the stems and roots come together—exposed in trays of sand, coir, or vermiculite. In a cold, frost-free greenhouse or conservatory, keep them simply damp. Plants grown in containers can be stored in their pots after being pruned.