Many summer residents at the beginning of the season take out pots with houseplants to country houses, taking them out into the open air. With the onset of cold weather, they return home. Such a plant as pelargonium is often planted in spring in flower beds, in flower pots, and in winter it must be dug up and put away for storage.
We will talk about how to prepare pelargonium (geranium) and fuchsia for winter.
Fuchsias
When bringing fuchsia (or other indoor plant) into the house, standing all the warm season in the open air, you need to be aware that unwanted “guests”can also enter with it. Pretty quickly, these pests spread to other house plants, and then to seedlings that you start growing at the right time.
In order for the autumn transition process to be painless, it is necessary to pay special attention to the treatment of pests. The plant may look perfectly clean, but after being placed in the heat, small white butterflies appear out of nowhere. And the most unpleasant thing is that they settle not only on plants, but also in crevices, where they winter perfectly and wait for seedlings.
Before moving the rose for storage in the cellar (temperature +4…+5°C/39.2-41°F), I water it, cut it off and make a paper cap, just like for pelargonium. More about this will be described below. No more manipulations are required, the plant overwinters well without additional watering and other things.
Pelargonium (geranium)
Pelargonium, unfortunately, does not tolerate cold winters, and therefore requires temporary relocation to more suitable conditions. Many people think about how best to preserve this plant in the cold period. I will share my experience.
After it’s time to remove the geranium from the street, I move the plant into the house, where it stands for about two weeks. Watering is completely stopped, since in winter the geranium has a period of rest, it almost never blooms at this time.
If your geranium grows in a flower bed in the fall, you can dig it up, put it with a clod of earth in a paper (not plastic!) package, tie it on top and put it in the cellar. Another option is more suitable for plants that have been in outdoor pots in the summer. This pelargonium needs to be moved to a temporary pot.
For further manipulations, you will need a water-based stationery corrector, a sharp pruner, newspapers, paper tape and a hydrogel soaked in water. All the green branches of the plant I cut down to the woody part, these are not very beautiful “snags”.
All green leaves are also removed. The sections on the branches are treated from rotting, the plant itself is slightly watered.
Now a paper cap is formed from newspapers with a ribbon, wrapped in a newspaper on top. In this form, the plant is lowered into the cellar (temperature +4…+5°C/39.2-41°F) and store all winter.
In early spring, after removing the cap, the plants do not look very attractive, but after pruning and adding nutritious soil, they quickly wake up.
Cuttings
From the cut green mass of pelargonium, I prepare cuttings and root them. To do this, remove the stems and most of the leaves, cut from the bottom to lush greenery and dip in the prepared hydrogel.
After a while, the roots will appear, and then I will plant them in pots and put them on a cool windowsill. In the spring, I will have quite a few mature plants with a good root system at my disposal, which can be planted in flower beds and flower pots.
I hope my experience in preparing flowers for winter will be useful to you. Share in the comments how you store your fuchsia and pelargonium until spring.
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