What should I do with geraniums during the winter?

Question

I brought my geraniums indoors for the winter.

• Do they need light?
• Should I water them?
• Should I cut them? If so, how short?
• When is the best time to take cuttings (i.e. during winter, start of spring, etc.)?

Answer 1

There are several options. The first is the most common in my area.

From here, Dig them up before frost, remove the soil, and put them in open paper bags. Then hang them from the rafters in a dry cool (45-50 degrees Fahrenheit) room. Several times during the winter, take them down, soak them in water for a couple hours, and return them to their original location.

Another option is to pot them and grow them through the winter like a houseplant, and move them out to the garden after it warms up in spring.

The last one I will mention is to cut all the stems off at ground level and leave the roots. Insert each stem into a tin can of soil. Keep the plants in a bright but cool location until spring, when they are rooted.

Answer 2

I pot them and put them in a sunny windowsill or under my grow lights. Either way they're not very happy, and they lose a lot of leaves, but they also give me cheery red flowers all winter, and stay alive until I can put them back out in the spring. Under the grow lights, they get really long-stemmed, and I generally cut off a lot of that growth when I put them back out. I'm pretty aggressive about deadheading and pulling off dead leaves, because they're indoors and I have to look at them.