Phil L wrote:

Thanks all!!
On reflection, I think I've left it too late for cuttings, so will salvage
what geraniums (pelargoniums) i can and will store them as suggested by
Nick for replanting next spring.

The seeds I shall attempt to save are from the tagetes only...I don't think
I'll bother with the lobelias or verbena, although I am tempted to try to
keep the latter alive over winter as they were immense this year, each plant
almost filling an entire hanging basket by itself! - although this could
have something to do with the medium which I filled the baskets and planters
with....In early spring, I went over the flagged area of the back garden
with sodium chlorate, not trusting the soil adjacent to the treated area for
using in the planters, I used a small amount of potting compost along with
about 60% of rotted lawn cuttings from last year, which are about two foot
deep in my 'compost' heap - it was soggy and took a lot of mixing etc, but
the final outcome was a good texture and retained a lot of moisture,
something which I think is essential for hanging baskets in
particular....I've never used home made compost before as our lawn is full
of dandelions and other assorted weeds and I figured that I would spend mre
time weeding the hanging baskets more than the rest of the garden but it
never happened - in the first few weeks I simply picked out the weedlings(!)
as they sprouted and nothing came even close to getting established except
the intended plants...I have 8 hangers and about 20 planters of various
shapes and sizes and they all did far better than those planted in the beds
at the same time...even now they are still twice the size.

Thanks all, I'll keep all replies and print them off so that I can check
that I'm doing it right through the coming months.