Pelargonium

I bought lots of pelargonium plug plants in the spring and planted in pots/containers for the summer, they were quite late to flower and are still not very big. In one of my gardening books it reads that you should repot in autumn and put in unheated greenhouse to overwinter plants. Can anyone tell me if they have had any success overwintering these plants?

 

Yes, I've overwintered. Indoors is best - an unheated greenhouse might be too cold.

Plenty of light, easy on the water.

My biggest mistake was moving them from the spare room windowsill to the unheated greenhouse in late March, when I thought they'd survived the worst. They died in a day.

 

:yez: Thank you for this advice. Many of my plug pelargoniums are still very small (the ones in full sun for most of the day - the others are starting to flower now). I'll try repotting and keeping them inside and hoepfully get a head start next year!
I blame our very dry spring for the lack of progress. No matter how often you water it isn't the same as rain!

 

take cuttings too from healthy plants.

 

When I was in Bucks many moons ago and for about 15 years I had about 60 Pelargoniums / Geraniums ... different varieties/species, it was a speciality with me. They were kept in an unheated conservatory South facing in the winter having been cut back and kept quite dry, just a watering perhaps once a week.

As an alternative, you can uproot them, cut them back drastically, shake the soil off the roots and put them in peat and paper and in a box in the dark for the winter months and bring them back out in the Spring and start them off again. They are extremely resilient.

Sadly, they do not like the intense heat here and I am lucky if I can keep one trailing Geranium in the shade for more than a couple of months.

 

I just wonder why the've no come on? They should have come on strongly because we had a lovely warm start to the summer. As Andrew says an unheated greenhouse may be too cold but they should be ok indoors in light. I've over wintered them for many years.

 

Rob I didnt receive the plugs until beg of June and they were tiny tiny tiny much smaller than I expected (they were freebies from a mag only paid for the postage so dont suppose I should complain) I potted on & left in greenhouse for a month so they didnt go outside until July only started flowering in Aug but although have grown a lot in a couple of months they are not as big as others I have seen in gardens around where I live. I don't really have any room indoors for so many plants (48 I think) but I can bring a few indoors. Do they need light during the winter months? maybe I could keep in garage/shed or the loft if unheated greenhouse not a good idea

 

Beachlover, no they don't need light in the winter if kept in a garage with dry, bare roots in potting compost wrapped in newspaper in a shoebox or such to protect them.

Try it half and half .... if you have half that survive, that's 24 and you can quickly take new cuttings of them in the Spring.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

 

Have kept my plants in the garage for the last two years with mixed success. The Zonal (geranium)pelargonium plants are more resilient than the Regal pelargoniums and did better when restarted. In every case I put the plants in compost in pots and offered occasional watering - overwatering will kill them off as well as if you allow them to dry out completely.

 

I once tried the plug plant geraniums, and didn't have much success with growth.

I then started buying the larger plants and taking my own cuttings, my collection soon grew and in the end it worked out cheaper.

 

I think Regals need some light over the winter. Regals continue to grow slowly even as temperatures approach 0C - so they will also require a bit of water as well. Zonals go completely dormant at that temperature so don't need light or water.

I suspect the reason that they have done so badly is the cold weather in August. I have a number of tender plants, similar in habitat to Pelargoniums, such as tender Salvias. They should have done well at this time of the year but they are very poor.