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It is hard to see gorgeous and precious geraniums die from a severe frost in the winter season. Now you might be thinking about how to store geraniums in winter. Well, there are few ways to keep geraniums in the winter season.
Before going too deep into the topic and diving down with all the information that I have collected for you, I want to make sure that you know what we are discussing. Most probably everyone reading this article must know it, but I must start from scratch. So, let us get started.
What are Geraniums, and Why to Grow Them in Your Garden?
Geraniums are one of the most popular annual flowers in the world. These annual Geraniums are excellent, and they beautifully grow and bloom from spring to frost seasons.
These flowers are one of the easiest flowers to grow, and that means buying a lot of flowers like this can add some more or a lot of burden to your wallet.
So, it is better to grow such plants in your garden. It will help your garden look more beautiful than before, and you will be saving your money too.
Zonal Geraniums or Seed Geraniums?
There are two types of geraniums available – Seed and Zonal Geraniums. So, first, check out which one you have in your garden.
Most people have zonal geraniums because they are a hardier plant and can survive in colder temperatures. Zonal Geraniums are big in size and beautiful in looks. Each zonal flower costs you about $3 to $5 per single piece of a 4 inches plant in the stores.
Seed geranium is a dedicated annual and dies off very quickly in the winter season. However, seed geraniums are inexpensive compared to Zonal. Let us know the main difference between these two varieties of Geraniums.
Zonal Geranium
This flower got their names zonal because of the zones of color found on their rounded leaves. There are many varieties of this geranium; however, each one has these variations of color on their leaves.
Seed Geranium
Seed geraniums are hybridized flowers grown from the seed. In zonal geranium, we are directly cutting off the mother plant to grow them. The good thing is that seed geraniums produce more bloom in the spring season.
On the downside, it is hard to keep seed geranium alive in the winter season. However, you can bring them indoors and provide plenty of lights if you want to overwinter them.
Due to their low cost, you can buy new ones in each season rather than overwintering them.
Growing and storing Geraniums in winter is a lengthy process to describe. We will be discussing it in steps.
How to store Geraniums in winters?
As we have a high demand for how to store Geraniums in winters, here is the answer. Growing and storing the Geraniums in winters is not an easy task; a challenge pre requires attention and care. For a short understanding,
These beautiful flowers grow and bloom beautifully from spring to frost without any fuss. It would help if you then dug them up in winter fall and put them inside a paper bag, cardboard box, or anything suitable to store for the overall winter season. And then these beautiful little flowers will again take off and grow big in the upcoming spring season.
How easy is that looking! But I must tell you that it is not that easy, it seems. Let us take it to step by step that How to store Geraniums in winters.
Dig Geraniums Plants Out of the Ground
When someone asks about How to store Geraniums in winters, then the first thing to do is dig the geraniums plants during the fall season before it is a freezing winter. And make sure there is no soil left on the roots.
But there is no need to wash the roots and clean every bit of the soil; shake it a couple of times. Put these plants at a shady place for a few days and let them dry well. All this is going to help during storage, as this helps to avoid mold.
Store Geraniums in Winters
This is the second and most crucial step in how to store geraniums in winter. Storing these geranium plants in winters is a super easy task.
All you must do is just put them inside a cardboard box or a paper bag and close the top of the box or bag. Here are some points to remember; this will help them survive the winter.
- Keep your geraniums plants in a cold, dry place. And make sure that the temperature is about 50 to 60 degrees F.
- Check the geraniums plants at least once a month for mold and remove the dried leaves from the cardboard bag or the paper box.
- Just during the time of the checking, we must do a quick check for the stems. Ensure that they are firm if you find out that the stems are withered and dried out stems there. Throw them away out from the box or bag immediately.
- If you find out that the plants are getting super dried and crispy, soak all the geraniums plants in the water for a few minutes. Make sure to dry them before storing them again in the box or bags.
- Dispose of those plants and cut off any of the stems that are black or mildewed-looking.
Generally, people store geraniums plants upside down in the storage box or the bag. There is no reason, but a theory is that it forces the moisture down into the stems. It does not matter what the season is, but you are supposed to have no problem string them this way.
Put up Stored Geraniums in Pots during Spring
The third and second most crucial step in How to store Geraniums in winters. When the winters are about the end in like 6 to 8 weeks, follow these steps:
- Take your stored geranium plants out and put them up in pots for some days.
- Pull the geranium plants out of the cardboard box or paper bag, wherever it is for the past few months, and clean up the plants.
- Cut off and tear down any extra-long roots and cut off the stems again for the plants’ healthy growth, as you see them in the market on shops. Most of them are about 4 inches long when they are plucked and cleaned up by the gardeners.
- Now, after that, get a pot or container.
- Fill it full of the pre-moistened planting mixture and tuck the stems deep so that at least two or three leaves remain below the mixture. That is where new roots will grow.
Get the Flowers growing
After planting the flowers in the pots, you should wait for a few days, and you will see new growth in about 10 to 15 days.
After all the dangers of freezing winters have passed, the fundamental trick to make them grow fast is to keep them watering cautiously only when the soil gets dried about an inch deep.
In the next 4 to 6 weeks, the geraniums plants will start to look like the plants you see in the markets. Now you can start to harden them off to transport outside anywhere.
Conclusion
That is all about How to store Geraniums in winters or How to Keep Geraniums in winters. We hope that this article will help you and you to overwinter your geraniums.
All the methods we mentioned in this post are working and do not require any significant time commitment to complete. No matter which method you use to keep the geraniums in winter, make sure they should be healthy and free-flowering plants for the spring season.
Once the danger of frost has passed, do not forget to plant them, and enjoy the colorful blooms all the summer season.
We are also looking for your feedback, so we must leave your feedback in the comments. Thanks for reading.
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