Preparing Geraniums for Winter Storage
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- čas přidán 21. 08. 2024
- In this clip, I go over my process of preparing my geraniums for winter storage. I always aim to do this two to three weeks prior to first frost.
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I have done this a couple of times and I did not get them wet, just let dry and rubbed all soil off. I found that in my zone 5 the repotting must be done in February in order to have full plants to set out end of May when our frost is gone. Any longer potting and no blooms til end of June. And even then bright light and room is required which I was lacking. But you go girl, it does work. I kept them in paper grocery bags in the basement. And misted them in January.
I’ve also put their roots in water late winter to bring them back to life. One year I waited too long and not as many survived into spring. Thanks for the timing and misting tip. Early blooms are always welcome! I hope you have some pretty geraniums to overwinter. 🌸🌸🌸😃🌸🌸🌱
I’m zone 5 also and trying this for first time. I grew fantastic geraniums from seed and thought overwintering would be easier than starting from seed again. I’ve seen various ways to do this and some box up all the vegetation, but I cut it off because I think it would mold. I don’t know if I will pot up too early as I’m trying to keep all that out in the greenhouse and heat closer to spring.
This was very educational. Never knew that I could over winter geraniums. TY!
I’ve had good luck doing it this way! You can also bring pots in and place in a sunny window and provide light water, but I don’t have the space ( I have too many houseplants). Also, this way doesn’t bring in any critters. Good luck if you try it! For some reason, my red geraniums seem to do best with this method. 🌸🌸🌸😀
This is such useful information! Thanks as always for sharing your plant knowledge.
I did this last year with these same plants. Hope they make it to a third year! Thanks for watching! 🌱🌱🌱🌿🌿🌸😃
Very informative
I’m glad you think so. I have good success saving my geraniums from year to year by doing it this way! 🌸🌸🌸🌸😀
Thanks for sharing ❤️
Learn something new 🤔
Hoping this technique works for me again this year! I have also learned a lot on CZcams! Thanks for watching! 🌸🌸🌸🌱🌱🌱🌿😃
In Florida geraniums don't have a dormant time. They may grow faster and multiply more in summer. Prices going up make economists of us all. This is a great video.
You’re lucky! I’m so glad I know this trick with the geraniums and get overall good results from it. I’m also taking coleus and tomato cuttings to grow inside in water, so we will see if I can keep them alive until next spring…thanks for watching! 🌸🌸🌸😃🌿🌿🌿🍅
@@PleasantPrickles we're in SW FL on the Gulf coast. I don't know about conditions elsewhere. Just wanted to be honest
@@PleasantPricklesI wonder how big the tomato plants would get. I think they would be huge by spring and possibly flower. It would be great to do especially on hybrids because you can’t save the seed, but I’m sure a cutting would be true.
@@dustyflats3832 I tried to take a tomato cutting inside last year and it died right away. They are much pickier about their conditions than geraniums. 🍅🌸🌸🌸
I never new this 👍🏼 great vlog & thanks for sharing 🌱 Chip 🌱 CHIPS WORLD
It worked for me last year! Hoping for success in the spring. Thanks for watching! 🌸🌸🌸
Is there a purpose for spraying off all the soil? I just let it crumble away. I also cut off all the vegetation and some leave it on and I think they would mold unless totally dry. I’ll find out next year. I’ll just check they get misted during storage if dry. Hopefully this will be easier than starting from seed.
Like you I just don’t have the room and don’t want bugs inside again like this year’s seedlings. It was awful and nothing got rid of them. Once I took them out to harden off I did try horticultural oil and it worked. Maybe that would have done it inside I don’t know, but nothing else worked.
I don’t remove the vegetation until it starts to yellow. I figure the moisture travels back into the stem as the leaf dries off like it does on a hot day. Also, I don’t want to open up leaf scars to dry out the stem too much before storage. I check on them the first month to remove dying leaves from the box. Removing leaves ahead of time works too, I’m sure. About the soil, I just like to reduce microbe and bug population before it comes in the house. I’ve seen other people shake of the dirt and that works fine too. Just personal preference. Thanks for watching. Good luck with your geraniums! I just this morning put up a video about saving this year’s geraniums. 🌸🌸🌸😀
Great video! Can you share a temperature range for how cool or how warm an area the boxed up plants can be stored in? I'm in an area that will have some freezing temps during the winter months?
Thank you! It freezes here too. I’m in Maryland zone 6b/7a. Once I’ve prepared them for storage, I bring them inside and store them in my heated basement in the dark. I once stored a box of elephant ear bulbs outside in a shed, and it was too cold so they froze. Sometimes people have success bringing them in as houseplants and keeping them in a sunny spot inside (possibly changing the soil to avoid soil bringing in critters), but I have poor light inside and too many houseplants! My mother in law did it that way. Just remember they usually don’t look good either way until they spring back to life in the spring. If you are interested in storing them in a box, I recommend watching Susan in the Garden’s video on this topic too. 🌸🌸🌸😀
I was excited to see this one and I was not disappointed! The process looks easy, thank you. Do ever refer back to your videos or do you keep a journal? I keep an online journal, Penzu, since I can no longer use a pen. I have saved your video and shared it with friends and family. I didn't have geraniums this year except two scented. We moved them into the greenhouse but I wonder if this would work for them. They are pelargoniums after all. Of
I have no experience with scented geraniums, but this method worked for me last year with these plants. I hope I have the same luck with them next spring. The key is really letting all the leaves shrivel, so nothing rots in storage. Thanks for watching! 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌱🌱🌱🌱💕
Has anyone tried overwintering PW petunias? I bought some on sale in August and now they are gorgeous and fill their 8 and 10 inch clay pots. I am planning on bringing them to the basement under fluorescent lights. Also I have a cold frame on a table in the garage where I plan to overwinter some perennials I got on sale from Gilbert Wild. These I expect to go dormant and lose their leaves since there is not sufficient light there. Now I hope I don’t drown them. I heard they need very little water in this circumstance.
I’ve never overwintered petunias. And yes, even if you leave them in their pot of soil, less water is better since they won’t actively be growing. Geraniums have kind of thick succulent stems which hold water, so I think that’s why they are suitable for overwintering. Good luck with your petunias! 🌸🌸🌸🌿🌱
I have propagated mine and brought my new ones in so I can continue propagate more so I have lot come spring
I think that is very smart! I propagated some of mine in the spring, but they were still kind of small even by fall. I bet by doing it your way they will be substantial by next year’s growing season! 🌸🌸🌸😃
These look like very easy to do. However I do over winter my Geraniums after trimming them and bringing them in. However anyone has any idea on how we can take care of house flies or those small bug like flies that seem to plague winter plants inside the house ?
I use little yellow sticky strips that stick into soil for when I bring soil inside. They do a good job keeping the fly population down. 🌱🌱🌱
OMG! The dreaded gnats. I can’t go through another winter with them and we also had aphids last year on seedlings. It’s all getting done later outside when it’s easier to heat greenhouse. I tried Everything to get rid of those fungus gnats. Once I took the pepper plants out to harden off I sprayed horticultural oil on them in the shade and that finally took care of aphids.
The gnats reproduced too fast and the BT Mosquito Bits didn’t work either. I’ve heard to drench the potted plants from outside with an insecticide, but I don’t know if it works. I’m overwintering 3 plants I potted up and if I see those gnats again I think they will go back out. The sticky traps work, but again, it doesn’t get the eggs they already laid.
@@dustyflats3832 Drats to the knats! They are very hard too get rid of! I had an issue one year bringing in pepper plants and I won’t do it again. Wishing you a pest free winter! 🌱🌱🌱😀
When you say to keep in a “ cool place “what degree would that be approximately?
I put them inside the house in my basement, which is probably mid to upper sixties degrees Fahrenheit. I’d say 50s to 60s degrees F would be ideal. Do not place them near a heat source, or anywhere they will freeze. Close your bag or box too so they don’t get light. Good luck! 🌸🌸🌸😃
Is that possible that I keep one of my 3 plants inside but not make it "sleep" (winterized) for the winter. I have a sunny window. Or if he will dye if I don’t do like you with that one?? I am from Quebec.
You can bring them inside and treat them like a houseplant and have very good results. I just don’t have the space inside to do that because I have too many houseplants, so this is just one way to do it. A sunny window would be great, water it lightly. Expect some leaf drop when you bring it in, but after it goes back out in the spring, it should bounce back better than ever. Good luck! 🌸🌸🌸🌸😀
I do this all the time. Works wonders and they love not being forced to hibernate.
I just don’t have the space to bring more pots in, so I do it this way. I have way too many houseplants. My mother in law used to bring them inside in pots like you do. 🌸🌸🌸
@@PleasantPricklesI don’t like houseplants except the two I have-orchid and Christmas cactus as they don’t require much. The space is limited here also and I don’t want gnats, ect again as last year we had those and aphids for the first time. All going to the greenhouse in spring next year.
@@dustyflats3832 yes, a lot can hitch hike inside when you start bringing in pots of plants from outside. I try to limit it as much as I can. I have had bugs, snakes and toads jump out of pots that have been outdoors for the warm season! Thanks for watching! 🌱🌱🌱😀
Do you really have to do this can't you just bring in your geraniums? Do they have to have dormancy time? I think my mom many year's ago use to just bring hers in and grew them inside the house during the michigan winter cold months.
Great question. No. You don’t have to do this. The other option is the way your mom and my mother in law did this which is to bring in the whole pot and treat them like houseplants. That actually works better than this, however I have a house that doesn’t have great light inside and I don’t want to set up grow lights. I also already have way too many plants inside, so I do it this way to save space. Also, it keeps any bugs or critters from moving in that might be living in the soil. 🌸🌸🌸😀🌸🌸🌸
@@PleasantPrickles I'm going to use neem on all the outdoor plants I brought in.
😊
I am in New Jersey, and I have just brought them in for the last 3 winters. I kept them by a sunny window, watered them, and put them back out in May, and they were just fine! 😀
My mother in law used to do that too, with great results! I do it this way as a space saver because I have too many plants inside and too little light to keep them happy. It’s nice to know people are saving their geraniums from year! 🌸🌸🌸😀 Thanks for watching!
Last year I cut them back but left them RIGHT in my pots. Much easier. This year, they took off and bloomed well. Why so much shaking off dirt and air drying/hanging/bags/boxes?? So
Unnecessary.
I don’t have room for the pots inside and I don’t want to bring bugs and critters in that are in the soil. One year I brought a potted plant in and a toad leaped out. This works well for me. I’m glad you’ve had success overwintering yours too, so many end up in the trash. 🌸🌸🌸
@@PleasantPrickles I am in process of overwintering zonal geraniums in Colorado, zone 5b. It has been over a week since I sprayed off soil and setting them in shade, cool temp for leaves to fall off. Although I cut back stems there are still green limp leaves. My question is why don't you just re.ove any green leaves at their nodes along then stems so they can go into boxes. Tired of waiting for leaves to die? Anxious to box up, thus my question to manually remove leaves so that you're not storing with moisture from green leaves? My unheated garage is between 40 and 50 hanks for your reply. My
@@cathyknutson9022 I usually bring them in with whatever leaves are left and lay them apart on a paper lawn bag until the leaves somewhat dry naturally, and then bag them up with a few dry leaves on them (some will fall off), that way the stem is not opened up and susceptible to moisture loss. The thick stems do have to retain some moisture to keep them alive. I had some geraniums that didn’t make it because I pruned them before storing and I think they lost too much moisture out of the cut side, but an open leaf node may heal faster though being a smaller surface area. Just remember come spring they do look dead, but can usually be resurrected by soaking roots and planting in fresh soil. Good luck! 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
@@PleasantPrickles thank you for commenting. As I said I'm ready to put in box. Is 40 degrees garage too cold to store in a box. My basement is around 65 and afraid too warm. Are brown paper bags better? What about doubling up and using brown bags within boxes and placing in 40 degrees garage? Should I mist roots before putting in bags or boxes. It's been about 3 weeks in cold garage drying and leaves still haven't dried up completely. Also, stored with roots up or down. Thank-you again for your knowledge.
@@cathyknutson9022 I used paper bags this year for mine, too. That’s a good choice. I actually store mine in my basement which isn’t cold, although it’s cooler than the rest of my home. Keeping them dry and dark is the most important thing. I would definitely not mist them at all as they go dormant, as moisture can cause mold and rot. The moisture they need for dormancy is already inside the fleshy stems, almost like a succulent, independent of the roots which will dry up like the leaves. The geraniums will look quite brown and terrible in a couple of months, don’t be shocked, but should miraculously bounce back when you introduce sun and water in the spring. At that point, you can keep them inside near a window until it’s safe to plant back outside. I put some elephant ears bulbs in a shed once with many layers and they still froze, so I’m always afraid to leave dormant plants in outside structures, but you know your climate best. 🌸🌸🌸
Bare root in card board box,terrible way,slowly kills geranium.should water spareingly instead with soil ,
I have great luck with this technique. They come back every year. They do not die, they go dormant. Dormancy is just a rest period for a plant, like trees outside or seasonal bulbs. But, tending to them inside in pots works too if you have the space, I don’t . 🌱