We live in the Chicago suburbs. Last winter I put all our hanging baskets of geraniums in a barely warm garage, anywhere from 35 degrees up to 55 degrees. They survived and have bloomed vigorously all this summer hanging along the sides of our deck. But, the plants have become leggy and I need to do something with them. Never had geraniums before so my wife and I don't know what we should be doing for this upcoming winter.
Help please.
I'm no expert but wife has been putting a couple to winter in our utility room and I looked on-line and believe you can cut back one to two thirds. I did this early in the year and rooted several cuttings and got several new plants. Put some in pots and some in the ground and just plan to leave them out to die, whatever, and clone new ones in February from what she brings in.
How did you go about rooting the cuttings?
Bob H
Endorse=A0that vigorous pruning.
If there is no natural light coming into the utility room, you need to hang up grow-lights, or at least fluorescents. Can't you hang them in the house itself near a window?
Put some in pots and some in the ground and just plan to leave them out to die, whatever, and clone new ones =A0in February from what she brings in.
Unless there is a whole army of geraniums, I see no need to leave them out to freeze.
In message , "hr(bob) snipped-for-privacy@att.net" writes
I take it that you mean Pelargoniums. (The true Geraniums mostly die back to the ground over winter.) These are fairly readily propagated by cuttings. The treatment of Pelargonium cutting is a little unusual; they are rooted under relatively dry conditions. If you browse the web (or the gardening section of the public library) you should find instructions for propagating Pelargoniums from cuttings.
I wintered them over last winter in our garage, in front of a SW- facing window, so they got some good strong light for several hours each day. I watrered them very sparingly.
I was hoping someone here could give me a quicker response than going to my local library, expecially since this is a gardening group.
Rooting hormone and peat pots with potting soil kept damp. Only did about half dozen but they all took. Advice came from googling. There is lots of stuff out there.
Rooting hormone from a place like "Franks" ?
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