How do I keep geraniums for next year?

[Sunshineandrainbow]

I once went to a patients house and she was keeping geraniums for the following year and taking cuttings and putting them into pots.

How do I do this successfully?

Take them out of the current soil, trim the straggly roots off, then put in fresh compost.

They need to come inside or at least under cover before the frosts or they go black and slimy.

They need to not freeze and not get soggy. You can overwinter the whole plant, or take cuttings - I’m sure there are a billion youtube videos but its basically chop off a bit, take off nearly all the leaves, shove it in some gritty compost, put it somewhere not frozen and let it do its thing. They are very obliging.

I'm trying this for the first time this year. I looked at lots of gardening websites and YouTube videos and there seem to be several ways of doing it. I've dug them up, knocked most of the compost off the roots, trimmed off flowering stems, dead stems and all but perfect leaves. Put them in a cardboard box and into the garage. Time will tell ...

I've brought all of mine in from the garden, still in their pots and have them on south facing windowsills. They're a mediterranean plant so like to be warm. Ass PP said, if you leave them out through the winter the stems go slimy and the whole plant dies.

You can also take cuttings OR you can lift the whole plant out of the soil, gently shake any soil from the roots, and remove any dead leaves/petals. You then lay them in a cardboard box (not plastic as they need to breathe) between layers of newspaper.This puts them in a suspended state. Replant outside in Spring once the danger of frost has passed.

Or if you have somewhere light and frost free, you can let them grow and flower all the year round. But they can get leggy. For neat bushy plants, cuttings are the way to go.

I just leave mine in their pots outside the front door, which is reasonably sheltered, and they mostly survive. But I take a Darwinian approach to gardening.

@NoBinturongsHereMate me too. Just leave them as they are. Some live and some die.
If they die I buy more. Too much effort for me otherwise

Thanks all. It was more the taking cuttings I was keen on to save some money next year. Will check you tube as never taken a cutting from anything! Remember hearing my nan rave about cuttings!

I take a similar view but I shove mine in the greenhouse resting on something like a bit of old polystrene for additional insulation. Some years it works, some years it doesn't - depending on how cold it gets. Every year I think I'll fleece them if a real cold snap is forecast. Ever year I don't.

I took mine in and left them in the spare room next to the window. Without heat, of course. I also, watered them very sparingly. Then in spring, took cuttings which they take quite easily before planting out in May time.

I've got geraniums that are almost 16 years old. They stay in pots. They go outside in the spring once the frost is over. I bring them inside normally around mid sept, and they see the winter out on a conservatory window ledge.

Cut lengths of 10 -12 cm from ends of shoots. Remove all except topmost leaves. You want about an (old) postage stamp’s area of leaf left. Trim base by cutting horizontally just below a leaf node - bumpy bit where the leaves grow from. Plant upright in gritty compost so that only the top 2cm is showing. You can plant several to a pot. Make sure soil is moist, envelop the whole pot in a plastic bag big enough to stay clear of the leaves, and tie at the top. Put in a shady cool place. Check every 2 weeks or so, and remove anything that has rotted. Next spring, watch for roots coming out of the bottom of the pot. At that stage you can gently repot.

When you get bored of cuttings as above, cut off the rest of the shoots and put them in a clear glass of water. Some of them will root and you can pot them up.

You sometimes see pelargoniums growing up trellises in glasshouses, and I've seen this outside in the southwest of England too in a sheltered, presumably frost free location.

I have just been leaving mine out the front and they have been fine (south coast). But this year I had to put them round the back so fingers crossed!