Great job, shirl! They look wonderful and healthy and full.

Hello,
I'm so encouraged by your pictures. I had beautiful geraniums last summer and decided to try overwintering these this winter. Online I watched a video where you just dig up the plants, shake off the dirt and put into cardboard boxes in the dark cool of the basement. In February take out and repot the plants cut back to the green, place in sunny location. Since I've already started this process, that they are in boxes in the cool dark of the basement should I continue the process? I truly hopes this works as I think these were the most beautiful plants I've ever had.
My question? How did you overwinter your cuttings?
Smiles from Idaho,
Onalee

I am so glad I found this thread! I read about doing this in Garden Gate magazine. There are only 3 or 4 starts in those pots? They look so lush. Did you have to feed them a lot to get them growing again? That was what Garden Gate said, they were heavy feeders. If so, what did you use? I want to try this. I was given two spent pots of dark pink geraniums, also two large spikes (draceanas), one in each pot. I will treat these as houseplants for the winter.

onaemtnest and prairiegirlz5

before freeze in fall I dig geraniums.....shake off loose dirt around roots, let dry in garage 7-10 days, turn upside down into brown paper bags, store in cool dark part of basement. Come spring after fear of freeze, I pot into New Miracle Grow potting soil 4 plants into 12-13 inch pots, a 15 " would not be to big. Trim down to about 4-6 inches above the soil line. I water well, set them outside and do not water again till I find a few tiny leaves starting. Then I water on a regular bases. They do not look good at first. Once the first leaves start they just keep growing. After the first of June I fertilize about every 10-14 days all thru summer with Miracle Grow fert. for flowers. I have also potted in Al's recipe for potting soil and they do well in also. They grow so big, green and lush. In fact they are huge compared to the new I buy each summer. This past fall I have stored approx. 36 geraniums, a collection of the last 3 yrs.

I might add about the four plants I put into pots in the spring, I have had stems that do not sprout....I just trim down and throw away. Four plants will give you big pots.

OMG, they are so beautiful. It's inspired me to plant more cuttings to enjoy their beauty next summer. I have many empty pot still, yeah I need to go to Lowe for potting soil.

Warm regards,
meli

Isn't that neat how you can take a bad looking geranium and bring it back to a beautiful flower all summer, I've been doing that for several years. I store mine in a bag in the basement and look at in Feburary and trim back the dead branches and enjoy all summer. Our temps. went from 50 degrees down to single digit by now......... down to below zero by morning........Spring sounds welcome in a few months.......

I tried this this winter. I used the brown paper bag method. I will be so ready to get them out and have the beautiful plant again come summer. I love taking my morning coffee out side w/the quite and plants. oh well it's quite for a little while, lol. good luck to all.
Bonnie

I have two big pots full of geraniums that I overwinter in my sunny living room. They're still blooming and it's February! I start giving them half strength fertilizer now every 2 weeks, alternating with water. They'll go outside in April or May when it's warm. I've kept these geraniums for over 10 years and they bloom all the time!

Florrie

I tried bringing mine in the house to over winter. they started to die on me. I don't thing I have enough light for them where I have to keep them and also my be to dry in here. So I went for the bag method this time. Sure hope it works. I have so many other plants in for the winter and they do fine but my favorites just don't seem to hold up. I wonder if I should have cut it back, and brought it in the garage for a few days before I brought them in the house for winter.
Bonnie

Thank you so much for posting the gorgeous pictures of your geraniums. Such inspiration! I have always grown geraniums but just really trying to overwinter this year. I hung several upside down in the basement per one post I'd seen and I have others still in their pots which I am still watering and they appear to be okay (but weak). I can't wait to find out if the ones hung up will really come back out this spring.
The double geraniums I found at HD last spring have been remarkable. They never stopped blooming over the summer

We overwintered geraniums this year for the first time and had amazingly good results. Better than I expected. We had a lot of bedding geraniums that we dug up in the fall, shook off the dirt, let dry out a bit, and put into brown paper bags in the basement. We read somewhere you are supposed to take them out every 3-4 weeks and soak the roots for an hour. We did that, too. I potted them up beginning of March, trimmed back, put them under lights, and fertilized heavily. They took off! I had so many, about 36, I had to move them to the windows. They're actually blooming now. Can't wait to put them outside again. We'll definitely do this again next year.

question... will the still be a bit green when they are removed from the bag from ow? or will they be brown/tan and hard? Mine have turned tan and are hard. I planted them anyway and now the bottom part of the plant is "filling in" the tan it is becoming firm yet feels alive? not sure how to word that. but the top is still hard dried out feeling. Is that the way it is supposed to be? do I keep on with this or throw them out? HELP...
Bonnie from the ozarks

Hi all,

Spring is finally here in SW PA.

I overwintered my geraniums in my basement in a non-dormant state. I think they got more light than they get on the porch in the summer, and it's a moister environment, and they flowered all winter and grew like gangbusters.

Now I'm wondering how far back I should prune them. I trimmed them back to 8-10" and removed any leaning stems, but the remaining stems I think are too large for the desired size of the plant (they are in window boxes).

How far can I cut them down? Can I go the ground, or remove secondary stems and leave 3-4" of main stems like in the "before" pictures in this thread, or ???

TIA.

I am sad to say my two tree geraniums did not make it through the winter. I have saved them for the last 3-4 years and this year I took the advice of someone on this forum and trimmed them back before taking them into the basement. I can't be sure that is what caused the problem but I am really sad.
Is a tree geranium different from a regular plant and/or only bigger?