Can you over winter Gerainiums in an unheated greenhouse?

...or are they better in a cool room inside a house?

When is the best time to take cuttings from this years plants ready for next spring?

Thanks in advance...

 

Are we talking Geranium's or Pelargonium's ?

G

 

I expect you mean pelargoniums. My dear departed father-in-law overwintered cuttings very successfully every year in his unheated greenhouse first in south London and then in West Sussex. I've managed very well on a window sill (east facing) in a spare bedroom in north Cumbria. I would wait a little while before taking cuttings (mine are only just coming into flower in this ludicrous apology for a summer) and try to take non-flowering shoots - not so easy in these days of ultra-floriferous strains.

 

Hi.

Geraniums wont take any frost, so it's all about keeping the frost off. It all depends on what kind of winter we get, but be prepared to bring them inside, if temperatures are forecast below -4c. However, wrapping them up in something like bubble wrap can help, but I wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to how much protection this will afford. Could you not install a propagator set at a low heat? I'm by no means an expert, so I'm sure someone else can add more

 

I just put mine in a [wooden] box, with old compost around them, and chuck them in the [frost free] garage. No light, and I water just a little bit about once a month. I bring them out into the light around March and kick them off again.

I also take cuttings in the Autumn, crammed into a pot (usually on a windowledge in the house), and by Spring they are busting out of the pot and I can pot them on. The idea is that cuttings will fit more-to-a-pot than lifted plants, so I can overwinter more per unit area of space.

 

Thanks...

 

As Freddy says, they won't take frost, or not prolonged frost, as I found out.

I potted up about 40 cutttings in a client's greenhouse three winters ago. I think they may have survived the odd night of frost, but that year we had several consecutive days when the temperature didn't rise above freezing. I think I saved four!

 

The zonal variety can withstand fairly low temperatures but need shelter from hoar frost. We used to keep ours outside for a fair few years from the late 90s to 2008 by growing against a sheltered wall but they were killed in 2009. This winter many gardeners around here successfully overwintered them outside without protection. If kept dry overwintering is very easy indeed as long temperatures don't fall below -5C