Reviving dried bedding, lost instructions

Last year I read an item(on the old Beeb site) about drying your summer bedding and storing it indoors. You could then revive it in the spring.

Unfortunately I have lost the link on how to revive it.

Do I just pop them in compost ? do  they need extra moisture or heat?

Has anyone else tried this?

I would imagine that you have to soak them in water for at least 12 hours, but I can't claim to have ever done this.

Let us know what happens!

Thanks Alina, I will keep you updated, 

Not a complete success but some of them are reviving

Interesting idea, Kate. I'll be curious to see how well they grow, i.e., whether the dessication has any permanent effects.

I must admit, I didn't believe that it would work at all when you mentioned it, so I'm fascinated by your progress. Which plants did you try?

Granny always used to do this with bedding 'geraniums'  (pelargoniums as they are now) - taking them out of the pots, wrapping them in newspaper and keeping them in a cardboard box under the bed in the spare room.  Potted them up in the spring and put them on sunny windowsills and in the conservatory and  they sprung into life providing lots of shoots for propagating as well.

Never heard of it with other bedding plants tho, as so many of them tend to be annuals don't they?

I tried pelargoniums, petunias and fuchsias, the petunias have been useless, 1 in 5 for the fuchsias and 50% of the geraniums are coming back to life!

Interesting how it's the pelargoniums, with their thick stems, which seem to be doing best.