EasyBloom Forum

I've dug up some of my geraniums and would like to know how to overwinter them. Thanks, Mary

Hey Mary...First off, I was wondering in what general region you and your geraniums live. This could give me a better idea of what you would need to do. I'm going to assume that you live in a more Northern climate, since many folk in warmer climates don't normally have to deal with overwintering plants. My recommendation to you is to pot those geraniums in containers with a light and fluffy potting soil. Be sure to thoroughly water them after you've repotted them. It's important that the potting soil drains well (water should not be pooling on top of the soil line for more than 1 minute). Place these containers indoors in the sunniest position you can find. You may want to pinch off any new shoot growth since they will be weak stems (that's because they won't be getting as much light as they should be indoors). When spring rolls around, give them a light fertilization and then move them back outside.

Another way you can store geraniums over winter is by simply putting them in your basement or another dark place for the entire winter. I learned this trick when I was on a horticultural tour of Germany. Germans love geraniums for their flower boxes. As winter approaches they trim back their geraniums and move them to their basements or a tool shed that will be cold during the winter months. They don't even dig the geraniums up. The average temperature should be in the 40's to the low 50's for the dormant geraniums. This is called dormant storage.

Another version of the dormant storage entails placing the geraniums in paper bags and storing them similarly to the German method. It is important to give them a boost of fertilizer when spring rolls around...I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any further questions. Happy Overwintering! Robby