Gardener's corner, a question about geraniums....

[Rhiannon]

I normally take my geraniums out of the soil, wrap them in newspaper and put them in the garage over the winter.

Does anyone keep them going all year round? I do have a south facing window sill they could sit on but will they keep flowering or would they be better off with a winter 'rest'? R

I have always overwintered mine in their pots. As long as they are frost and draft free they should be fine. It is worth being careful not to overwater them to avoid mould and rot and no need to feed them. they will die down a bit and only produce a few weedy flowers if mine are anything to go by. I pick these off to give the plants a break. Mine come inside as soon as the risk of frost is about (now!) and pop them on the floor in their pots in my unheated conservatory where they just hang out until early summer. Trim back and feed well in spring to let the new growth come through healthy and strong, plant out when the weather dictates and you should be fine. Good Luck.

I do exactly what Jaytree does. Its important to pick the flowers off to build up the plant over winter. I prune mine back quite hard too. I've got two big pots that have 5 year old geraniums in!

Do you think mine would be OK tucked down (behind a low brick wall) inside an unenclosed south facing porch? Or should I put them on an east-facing landing windowsill?
I'd really like to keep my cascaders going for next year, they were really on form. Have never attempted this before being a novice and rather dim gardener.

No answer, but a recommendation for a fantastic free website www.expertgardener.com
They have very active message boards for advice on just this kind of thing.
It is the mumsnet of the gardening world!

My mum takes her best ones in for the winter, as JayTree describes, then uses them to take cuttings in the spring.

Jasper, I haven't looked at www.expertgardener.com since there was a major explosion with all the paid advisers resigning and leaving after not being paid! So it is still running? Another good place to post is the Usenet group, uk.rec.gardening.

Marina, the thing that will kill off your geraniums is frost. Our south-facing garden is definitely not frost-free, so I'd tend to put them inside - an unheated enclosed porch would be OK (wish I had one of these!). But depends on where you are/how built up it is/etc etc. In NZ I had a geranium as a pot plant and kept it going all year - so I can't see why you couldn't do it here?

I'm depressed about our garden because DH dug it up and hasn't yet got round to redoing it. We've been quoted £££ to fix the fence and put in some paving. Plus I haven't done anything in it since I was about 5 mths pregnant. Running out of excuses to do the weeding now! But hey, it's winter so we can leave it till next spring...

oooh, I didn't know about that FlorenceUk.
Yes it is still running. I posted a question there a few weeks ago and it got some replies immediately.

I must be a lazy gardener and a very lucky one because I just leave mine in the ground!! They do get protection from surrounding shrubs and the border is mulched with bark which probably protects them from ground frost - I cut them back aroud now (something else to remember to do!!) and they reappear in the spring!!