Can You Grow Geraniums Indoors Like a House Plant?
If you thought geraniums were an outdoor annual-only plant, think again. You can successfully bring your summertime geraniums indoors for the winter. Once the weather warms up again in the spring, you can return them to the garden. You can also grow them indoors as house plants.
If you're bringing geraniums indoors for the winter, choose only your healthiest, most vigorous plants. Inspect them for insects. Use a strong spray of water from your garden hose to wash the plants and repot them in sterile garden soil and clean containers. If you have geraniums growing in containers outdoors, don't just bring the containers inside. You can bring some unwanted "hitchhikers" in with you!
Geraniums can be grown indoors in a bright, sunny windowsill. Always cut them back to about a third of the height of the original plant before bringing them inside. There's less light indoors, even on a bright, sunny windowsill, and the angle of the sun in the winter time is lower, so that the plants receive less light. They tend to shed their leaves, and the remaining leaves will be larger to catch more light and transform it into food.
You can keep geraniums indoors as a house plant. They tend to "shed" or drop their petals frequently, which can be messy. You may want to drape a tablecloth, oil cloth or something else on top of the table or window sill to protect it from stains. Clip dead leaves and deadhead the flowers frequently. Keep your plants well-watered and enjoy the colorful blooms indoors all winter long.
I hope you enjoyed this brief introduction to growing geraniums indoors. This is my geranium collection in my office at home; in a few short months, they'll return to the window boxes, but for now, they cheer up the dismal winter days.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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2 of 52 comments
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Looking forward to saving my plants over the winter. Thanks
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i did it this year. I live in Pa. and they are blooming all over.
i have 4 of them.
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What is the best way to store geranium plants through the winter and start them again in Spring and what time do you start them