Time to Pot Up Geraniums!

If you overwintered your geraniums using my method of knocking the soil off the roots and storing them in a bag or box, it’s time to pot them up again. I don’t know about you, but that’s exciting because it means spring really is coming!

I just potted up mine and had fairly good results from the overwintering process. There were 8 ‘Pinto White to Rose’ zonal geraniums, 4 coral zonal geraniums, and 6 coral ivy geraniums.

All 8 of the Pintos made it as well as all of the coral zonal geraniums. But, just like last year, none of my ivy geraniums made it. That continues to be a puzzler for me. Fortunately, you might recall I had taken cuttings from those plants last fall so I have several new plants to put in my hanging baskets. Whew! It pays to be sneaky, I guess.

Now, as far as potting up your geraniums goes, here’s how I do it:

Working with a single plant at a time, I carefully remove all of the dead leaves. Then I examine the main stems for any that look really shriveled up or black or brown (see photo directly above). Healthy stems will be pale green. There should be tiny, pale leaves emerging from some of the stems (photo at very top).

Clip off any dead stems that you see, being careful not to remove or knock off any of the new growth. At that point, pot up the plant with some lightly-moistened potting soil and move it to a sunny location. Keep an eye on the soil to make sure it doesn’t dry out.

As you can see by my photo of the flat of geraniums that I just potted up (below), they look pretty bizarre right now! My routine is to let the plants start sprouting new leaves for a few weeks. Those leaves will quickly turn dark green because they are finally being exposed to sunlight again. Once there is a fair amount of new growth, I like to cut the plants back to make them more compact. But for now, the goal is to get them growing again. Let me know if you have any questions: Susan@susansinthegarden.com.