How do you overwinter your pelargoniums if you don't have a grrenhouse?

[ChardonnaysBeastlyCat]

Just that, really.

I\d like to keep them for next year, they are lovely and I have some scented ones too.

Apparently you can take them out of the pots and keep in a garage over the winter. Has anyone tried that and did it work?

And now I managed to spell greenhouse wrong. Oh dear.

A friend of mine uses cloches very successfully.

On pots as well?

I just put those in pots in a frost free place, garage or spare bedroom on window ledge and forget about them till Spring (North England). In France they are more brutal, shake the soil off the plants and wrap them in newspaper, put in frost free garage etc till Spring when they're potted up. I guess this takes a lot less room up but never been brave enough myself with plants I really like. In London my relatives just leave them outside and they seem to over winter OK.

On big pots which are hard to move.

Really temped to try the brutal method.

Might be sorry later,

Can you put fleece over them? Not sure what size they are but I’ve used plastic storage boxes (the large really useful ones) to over winter plants before

My mum used to bring them into the u heated porch, their smell is the smell of winter for me now.

Some are babies I propagated this summer, others are huge monsters of pelargonium. They are all in big pots though.

Fleece is an option, but I can be a bit forgetful whenever I need to get it put.

Don't have one.

I tried grouping then near the front door one year but the dogs kept bumping into the pots.

I have a mixture of trailing ones and big upright ones. I used to overwinter them in the conservatory which is unheated but frost free. I don't bother now.
I take lots of cuttings and place about 6 to a wide pot. Start them off around September and pot on in Feb/ march in a warm place.
You don't get flowers quite as early as overwintered plants but they soon catch up.

My mother used to do this. Shake the soil off, tied them in bunches and hung upside down in the garage. (nb. the garage shared a wall with the house so it didn't freeze).
She reckoned a 50% survival rate.
The best plants spent the winter on windowsills indoors.

Thank you all!

I'll hedge my bets and try all of the above methods.
I might report next spring with a list of casulties.

Are you growing them in pots or in the ground, and where are you in the country?

I tried both lifting them and leaving them in the pots with fleece jackets.

The ones I lifted, I dug them up, put them in paper bags and left in a frost free place like the garage or I just used a big plastic storage bench we have in the garden.then I potted them back out in April once I was confident no more frosts.

The ones I left in pots, I just covered with fleece jackets. There were against a south-facing wall and we are in London so never gets very cold.

The fleece jacket ones probably did best, but all of them did come back eventually. The fleece jacket ones probably did best be a use they started growing before I potted out the ones I’d lifted, so had more of a head start.

I tried the brutal method last year and had nearly no casualties. However, they didn't flower anywhere near as well as the fresh plants from the garden shop. They all ended up just a mass of (annoyingly healthy) leaves. Any advice on this?

Thanks!

They are in pots, mostly big pots and I'm in London.

I'll try both, I'll lift some, and I'll group the rest of them together so I can use the fleece coats.

I will also take cuttings, but I don't have much hope for those.

For the ones you're leaving outside, put some wooden blocks under the planters. You need to get the pot off the ground. That will help stop the soil from freezing.

If you're in London and the pots are near the house/in a sheltered spot, you probably won't have to do anything unless it's really freezing for several days. What is important is that the soil should be as dry as possible.
I've wrapped pots in burlap and put fleece around the base of delicate plants which seems to work well.

Good idea!

Will do.

Last year, or was it the previous?, we had some bad frost and I lost some.

I'll ask my neighbours how they do it. Some have quite impressive collections.