Each fall, I move the container geraniums (pelargoniums) into a dry sunny spot for a month, under the house eaves.  No water.  By drying them out, they go dormant.  Then I move them into the garage, which does not freeze but is cool.  In the Spring, I move them back outside, trim them a little, and start watering again.  I give them some growing plant food (more nitrogen), then when they are recovered, they get some blooming plant food.  These geraniums are about 4 or 5 years old, becoming large and bushy.  Nice plants.  Some of the containers also contain 4=Four O'clocks or Nerines.  I might remove the Four O'clocks this year if they are too rangy.  I have some of those in the flower border as well.

In the other containers, I stuck some nasturtium seeds -partly for flower and partly for salads; orchids, and carnivorous plants.  The cactus was a grocery store nopale that I planted in cactus soil a couple of years ago, and keep in the sunroom during the winter.

What's Blooming. 6.28.16

Marigods

Crocosmia

Milkweed

Potato Onion

Roses

Classic Red Rose

Potato Onion

Chinese Chives

Overwintered Pelargoniums from Cuttings

Geranium (Pelargonium) shrubs. 5.31.15

Overwintered Geraniums.  5.31.15

These are the geraniums (Pelargoniums) that I overwintered for the 2nd or 3rd winter.  The front (right) box was overwintered in sun-room, and stayed green much of winter with blooming.  The back (left) box, less visible, was overwintered dry, in the garage.  Those geraniums have filled in and starting to bloom.  Nice big, full, Pelargonium shrubs.

The center box contains new plants.  Two are purchases, and one is a cutting from the back box, rooted in water after I cleaned up and pruned the plants when brought outside from their winter dormancy.

Overwintered Geraniums.  5.31.15

Indoor plants. Propagating geraniums. 3.14.15

Yellow clivia.  3.14.15

Crassula argenta 14 years old.  3.14.15

 Ning discovered that his clivias are blooming.  This one was grown from seed, from a plant that was grown from seed.  At the time that was sold as "Sahin's yellow" but this being next generation, the variety name may not apply.  Clivias like storage dry and cool for the winter, until they send up flowers.

I repotted the Crassula argenta.  This one  is 14 years old.  It likes the conservatory - like environment of the sunroom.

Geranium scraps for cuttings.  3.14.15

Geranium cuttings in water.  3.14.15

I picked up some geranium scraps from the overwintered plants that I cleaned up last week, pruned of torn or dead parts, and placed them in water.  That often works.  If it does not work, they are free so nothing lost.  Several of my geranium plants were started that way.  The water should be changed every few days, and the plants potted when there are a few roots growing.

Some Old Botanical Illustrations. 12.26.13

These are selected images I liked from vintageprintable.com public domain downloadable images. The illustrate the topics very well.

Onion

Pelargonium, zonal geranium

Peppers

Red Mulberry

Fig

Overwintering Pelargonium, Citrus, Brugmansia, Zantedeschia, Opuntia

Time to overwinter containerized plants, or give up on them.

Pelargoniums (zonal geraniums)  are still green and blooming, but some neighborhoods have already experienced frost.  I moved mine into the attached, frost-free but unheated garage.  For most of the winter I don't do anything to them.  I might add a little water late winter.  I think these are just 2 years old.

Braziliopuntia braziliensis, from Wikimedia commons

I have a Opuntia neoargentina also known as Brasioliopuntia braziliensis, which is frost tender.  I've managed to keep it alive for 20 years, by bringing it inside or keeping cuttings.  I think the current plant is about 6 years old.  It will be in a bright cool room at the battleground place.  Last year I kept it in the basement without watering.  It didn't thrive, but it did survive.  I want to repot it into a larger container and would like to see it bloom next year.  Photo from wikimedia commons.  Mine is not nearly that big.

I have an unnamed Zantedeschia that I've grown in containers for 25 years.  I bring it inside for the winter.  It bloomed this year, but not much.  Needs re-potting in fresh growth medium.  It's in the garage now.

The Brugmansias are kept in the garage overwinter.  I try to let them, and the other plants, sit outside in a rain-free location for a few weeks before bringing inside, to start dormancy.  That way they don't grow weak useless growth while in storage.

I also brought Epiphyllum oxypetallum to Battleground to keep in sunny cool room.  I also kept that in the basement last year without water.  It wasn't that healthy looking, but bloomed twice.

The Meyer lemon, Kumquat, and unnamed 15-year-old seed-grown citrus are in cool sunny bedroom window.

That's about all of the overwintering I can handle.  If it doesn't freeze tonight, I have an aloe to bring in. 

Overwintered Deck Plants, in bloom

Brugmansia

 These were the deck plants that i let dry out in late fall, then stored in the garage.  In April, I got them out and watered. The brugmansia also needed a larger container.  Now all blooming nicely.

Agapanthus, Zantadeschia, Dianthus

Geraniums

Overwintered and other Geranium (Pelargonium)

Here are some of the overwintered geraniums (Pelargonium). The most successful and easiest approach was to have them in containers and just leave the containers dry out in the garage for the winter. This is the "cheap+lazy" method since it really doesnt entail much effort, and results in nice good-sized plants by early summer.

The variegated pelargonium was overwintered. It is just coming back into its own. The finely cut leaf pelargonium was just added. It is scented, citrus. The smaller flowers are sweet alyssum, probably coming up from seeds from ones that bloomed in the container last year.

So tell me, please - why do I need a peppermint scented pelargonium when I have peppermint-scented peppermint growing all over the place? Anyway, it does smell, strongly, like peppermint. This one is new, so is not an overwinter example.

This wals also overwintered as above. This one is pine scented and it smells very much like pine. The scent is stong. Cool. Each time that I walk past it, I pinch off some more and smell it. The dark purple leaves are part of a Tradescantia pallida. This did well in other containers, using the dry-for-the-winter system. I was also surprised to see one poking up in the strawberry border, surviving the winter in ground. That is probably a fluke, this is really a tender tropical plant.

This is another scented one. I forget the variety. It did not survive the totally dry method 2 winters ago - this was kept as a cutting over that winter. So this winter I kept it almost-dry in a cool sunny room. Also took a cutting, using the lazy-gardener's method of cut off a piece and stick into some potting soil and water like any other house plant. That worked too. I cleaned it up a bit, and stuck some cuttings in the ground or with other plants. If they grow, that's good. If not, nothing lost.

Just regular run-of-the-mill geraniums. The prior over-winter entries show how they looked coming out of the garage. 6 weeks ago the leaves were dry and crispy, and the stems didnt look much better. All that I did was clean them up and set them in a semi sunny location. Again, the lazy gardener's method of overwintering, and the cheap gardener's method of having some large geraniums for the deck. They'll be blooming soon.