keeping geraniums past winter?

Hello,

So im a new gardener and i love geraniums. I read that it isnt a good idea to move the geraniums indoors for the winter . Is there any tricks to keeping them past winter onto next spring?

I used to take cuttings. Poke them into a pot of moist soil and cover (loosely) with a plastic bag to keep them from drying out too quickly, until they start to grow new leaves - that means they've rooted and you can treat them like a houseplant that likes bright light. They are *very* easy to root, unless the parent stock is already diseased.

Don't let them freeze.

Growing up in Southern California, I just naturally assumed that geraniums were perennials, and the more fertilizer they got, the bigger they grew. Then you could take cuttings and propagate them and have more geraniums. How surprised I was to move to a climate with hard freezes and discover that geraniums were now "annuals", and you got new ones at the plant center each spring. What a bit of marketing that was to make people part with their money!

The same works for peppers and tomatoes and eggplants and, oh, there's lots of plants that are perennial in the tropics that people treat like annuals because they lack a greenhouse or the diligence to see them through the winter. It does take a bit of work, you have to build a greenhouse, lift your plants and put them into pots and move them to the greenhouse. Depending on how cold your climate is and how sturdy your greenhouse is, you may have to heat it.

The next time you hear someone tell you silly things about moving plants indoors, just laugh at them and tell them "you're not getting my money next spring".

John Elliott wrote:Don't let them freeze.

Growing up in Southern California, I just naturally assumed that geraniums were perennials, and the more fertilizer they got, the bigger they grew. Then you could take cuttings and propagate them and have more geraniums. How surprised I was to move to a climate with hard freezes and discover that geraniums were now "annuals", and you got new ones at the plant center each spring. What a bit of marketing that was to make people part with their money!

The same works for peppers and tomatoes and eggplants and, oh, there's lots of plants that are perennial in the tropics that people treat like annuals because they lack a greenhouse or the diligence to see them through the winter. It does take a bit of work, you have to build a greenhouse, lift your plants and put them into pots and move them to the greenhouse. Depending on how cold your climate is and how sturdy your greenhouse is, you may have to heat it.

The next time you hear someone tell you silly things about moving plants indoors, just laugh at them and tell them "you're not getting my money next spring".

thanks for the tip. i gotta try it this year to keep them next year. geraniums get quite expensive where im from