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Over wintering over large Pelargoniums

bryanedwbryanedw Posts: 20
in Plants
This year is our first year of having these plants - we have about 12. We have an unheated  greenhouse. I want to over winter them however these plants have grown quite big and lanky (combination of feeding a lot and perhaps their search for light). Example in pix.
Advice please? Thanks in advance.
Bryan 

Posts

  • janetfossjanetfoss Posts: 303
    I take cuttings from mine, @bryanedw. If you wish to keep any, cut them right back and put somewhere frost free. I have several which I keep indoors as houseplants and they've been going for several years.
  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    I move mine into the greenhouse (unheated), cut them back severely, and don't water them much during the winter......basically let them suffer drought conditions. It has worked most years and some have even overwintered outside but last winter killed them all off so it is very much a case of luck and how much very cold and wet weather we experience, and also where you live. As @janetfoss says, take cuttings and keep those indoors just to be on the safe side.
  • amancalledgeorgeamancalledgeorge Posts: 2,736
    They look to me like just a common red zonal bedder variety. Not exactly difficult to come by as a multipack every year. I'd be pro taking cuttings and keeping them if it's something a bit more difficult to find. Otherwise they can take a lot of space. Maybe take this year's growing experience and look out for a few varieties next year, it's such a big plant family they are fascinating, from Angels to Fragrant Leaved and Regals. 

    The main enemy for overwintering them is excessive moisture as they succumb easily to botrytis. 
    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
  • BiljeBilje Posts: 811
    I do have a small cold greenhouse  I’ve tried overwintering pelargoniums in it but they are very prone to grey mould. I take pots of cuttings then overwinter them on shelves against a window in the garage which is far more airy than the greenhouse they are kept dry ish and do ok.
    my large plants are cut back and overwintered sheltered outdoors ..like other folk they usually do OK but I lost them last year. Im NE England.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Back in the day my granny would cut the tops back, take them out of their pots, wrap them in newspaper and store them in a cardboard box under the bed in the unheated (most of the time)  spare bedroom. 
    In early spring she’d pot them up into fresh compost and start them back into growth on the sitting room windowsill. When they’d made healthy new shoots she’d use some of these for cuttings if she wanted to increase the number of plants she had. Otherwise she’d just grow the original plants on and plant them out after the last frost. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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