POTTING UP PELARGONIUMS READY FOR WINTER PROTECTION

There's definitely a chill in the air this morning, foggy too, and for me that's a reminder that frosty nights and days are on the way.  Winter!  Under my living room window I grow a trough of pelargoniums (often called geraniums) which I plant each spring.  Pelargoniums originally come from South Africa, I understand, and they are not fully hardy.  Certainly they are not hardy enough to cope with the harsh winter sub-zero weather that we can get here on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire.  They don't like to be frozen or waterlogged.  They like sunshine and warmth (a bit like me really).  So, the other day I gently dug them out of the trough and planted them into pots and placed them under the shelter of my garden room's overhanging roof.  They'll be happy enough there for a little while longer, facing south-west, and when the weather becomes harsh (and I expect it will) I can pop them inside the unheated garden room or if the thermometer plunges too low, even bring them into the house as and when necessary. 

I love the colour of these red zonal pelargoniums so much, and the colour of the ivy-leaf trailing ones too which are a delightful pink.  The ones I have now are descendants of a few plants that I bought many years ago.  Each spring I take pelargonium cuttings and perpetuate them that way.  I know many gardening websites, including the RHS (external link), advocate taking cuttings in summer but spring works for me and I don't want a houseful of plants and cuttings taking up space all winter.  I've been taking cuttings in early spring for years, bringing them on in the house for a week or three, and putting them outdoors when the weather warms up.  The cuttings root in no time at all in a warm environment with plenty of light, and by early summer they are in flower.  I don't fuss with hormone powder or anything such, but I do water the cuttings from the bottom (I just pour water into the tray when they need watering) in order to avoid rotting on the stems. 






Pelargonium cuttings, March 31, 2017 

Below, my pelargoniums' colourful ancestors, photo taken 2011.





There are often exceptions to the rule.  At the front of my home, in the partially sheltered doorway, I have two small corner troughs in which I grow two pink ivy-leafed trailing pelargoniums.  For the last two winters I have left the plants right there, in the corner trough.  I just cut the trailing plants right back so they cannot be blown about in the wind and now and again I check them to ensure they have not become absolutely bone dry.   Each year, I take down the corner troughs, remove the plants, repot them in fresh compost, and put the troughs back into place.  This year the trailing plants adorned my home's from entrance.  One year, they were even in flower when there was snow!  Seriously.  See below.  This happened, I believe, because the roots are protected from the elements in troughs that are high up and not exposed to extreme weather. 

Ivy-leaf pelargonium growing from a corner trough

 in the shelter of an open porch in winter



Ivy-leafed pelargoniums in corner trough, 2013.