I'm not sure if I'm just a frugal gardener or whether I just can't stand seeing my hard summer work go to waste, but I always feel that overwintering my geraniums is the right thing to do. It might just be that it gives me a nice little project to do as my spring fever starts to set in really good towards the end of March. Geraniums are extremely resilient, in fact if you look close enough at the image above you'll this geranium has flowered WHILE IN STORAGE! I had 5 geraniums in storage and they all tried to flower, but I just picked them off hoping to save a little energy for the plants. That said I brought my geraniums out of storage this past weekend and potted them up to get them started for summer. I wrote and re-share a post on "Overwintering Your Favorite Geraniums" that always gets a great response, so I figured I'd write a quick "how-to" on bringing your geraniums out of storage. I hope you'll excuse my novice photography, but I took some pics and they'll walk you through some easy steps to bringing those hearty flowers back to life.
What You'll Need
- Your Geraniums of course
- Your pots: I use my terracotta pots because sometimes I re-pot & sometimes I don't and I love terracotta.
- Pruners: You can also use a pair of nice clean scissors.
- Potting Soil: I know, I know, I used Miracle Grow here but of course if you can use your own own mix it's better.
Soaking The Roots
This is an important step in bringing your geraniums "back to life". I like to soak them overnight, and the best soak is in Anne Haven's "Authentic Haven Brand Manure Tea". Soaking your roots in the vitamin rich tea gives your geraniums a much needed boost coming out of storage.
Cut Your Geraniums Back By About Half
Before:
After:
Not to big of a difference, like I said roughly half. I also like to get rid of the dead wilted leaves, but if you're lucky enough to have some green leaves cut back to them and call it good.
Potting Them Up
This is the easy part, fill your pots with your potting mix and pot them up. I throw usually split up all the cuttings and throw them in the bottom of the pots with some stones for better drainage. I've found that geraniums don't like to be overwatered and they need good drainage to do really well.
You've Woke Your Geraniums
Place your newly potted geraniums in a window that get nice light, but doesn't get to hot. I like to give them one good initial watering, but don't water them too much, like I said they like to dry out a bit. Keep the soil nice and loose at the top so the roots can get some air, and just wait for the magic.
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