greenhouse woes.

I have moved my still flowering geraniums into my greenhous to beat the frost from killing them.

But other years I have lost the lot to a dust/ cobwebb type fungus or something like that, despite opening doors and window to allow ventilation.

Has anybody got any sound advice please??

Best idea-is to remove all the leaves etc-it is thecold/damp conditions in the greenhouse that do that-the main thing that they don't like -far better in my opinion to lift the plants, shake off most of the soil,remove most of the leaves and store in pots in a cool dry frost free place-you can them cram 3/4 plants together in one pot

Separate and start again in the spring by cutting plants back and re-potting

strip off all the leaves....  will they survive this??

It is winter time-they don't need the leaves- they will drop or rot off any way of anyway-it has been known for people just to wrap them in newspaper -store in a drawer and repot in the spring

Unless you want to keep them growing-that needs warmth -heated greenhouse or indoors?

sounds like a plan.....many thanks..

I agree with Geoff on this, they do go mouldy if you leave the leaves on, it is ok to cut them off, they will shoot out from the base next spring.

sotongeoff wrote (see)

Best idea-is to remove all the leaves etc-it is thecold/damp conditions in the greenhouse that do that-the main thing that they don't like -far better in my opinion to lift the plants, shake off most of the soil,remove most of the leaves and store in pots in a cool dry frost free place-you can them cram 3/4 plants together in one pot

Separate and start again in the spring by cutting plants back and re-potting

Seems sound advice to me Sotongeoff. I'll do the same to mine tomorrow. I've never managed to overwinter geraniums so this must be where I have been going wrong. Thanks.

Great advice Geoff / Lyn  thank you, I was debating what to do with some I have, sounds a bit scary removing most of the leaves but If that's the way to save em that's what I shall do. Do they need light whilst in storage ? or would a dark shed be ok.

I have not tried the newspaper trick-but have kept them in pots as I described-a shed might work but I would be more inclined too give them some light

The basic idea is anywhere cool,dry and frost-free

Cheers I shall pop them by the window in the garage,  

Also try sprinkling Sulphur dust on them. This kills off the Botrytis spores which is what your mould is. I use this a lot on my Primula allionii plants which are very prone to infection.

I am not sure if your garage will give enough winter protection for you geraniums Peter.

What I should have advised was that you cut the tops of and use them as cuttings just in case, you can still do this if you use warm seed compost, water in with warm water then keep almost dry on the kitchen windowsill.

Hope its not to late!!

If all else fails, keep the labels so you know which ones you liked best and re purchase next spring, or let me know and I will post one off to you.

Geoff is correct, I lift them strip them dust them and cram them in pots in the garage, it has never been below zero in there and never lost more than the odd one out of boxes of them. Too late for cuttings now, as soon as you wake them up late February/march then take cuttings and keep on doing it.
Plants are much tougher than we think.

Frank.

Well! I have done it, took all the leaves and last flowers off all my geraniums, and may I say, what a job it turned out to be. 

I have left them in a well lit cold greenhouse, but made little tents out of old heavy newspapers and draped these over my baldy plants....  

It shouldn't be a problem for me to keep taking a peep at them to check if anything is going wrong.

Being an obvious unconventional garden, my cuttings that I took last week are romping away,