In the spirit of coarse gardening at the end of last year we just picked up
all our geranium/perlagonium posts and tubs and put them in the shed.
Shed (Mother Of All Sheds) is cold, frost free (I think) and has subdued
light from north facing windows and door glass.
We just left them alone (I may have watered once) and today we have brought
them all out again.
Nearly all seem to have survived and some are still in flower.

Hopefully we will get an early display this year.
Garden (Felixstowe, Suffolk) should be frost free now barring really extreme
weather.

Chili plants (although alleged to be perennial) seriously dead.

Cheers

Dave R

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

Even after all of tese years I continue to be amazed at how tough
zonal pelargoniums can be. I don't keep many, but a pot of 'Doris
Moore' that was a cutting from Bob Hobden has just successfully gone
through its second winter outside here undaunted and damage free.
Admittedly it was against a wall, but we had a -6C last winter
(2010/2011) and a couple of -3Cs in early Feb this year. If last year
is anything to go by it will be a mass of flower within a few weeks
and continue well into early winter. It is a tall variety that needs
regular pinching to keep it looking tidy, but I'm very tempted to let
it run this time and train it as a 'climber' against the wall.

"David WE Roberts" wrote ...

In the spirit of coarse gardening at the end of last year we just picked up
all our geranium/perlagonium posts and tubs and put them in the shed.
Shed (Mother Of All Sheds) is cold, frost free (I think) and has subdued
light from north facing windows and door glass.
We just left them alone (I may have watered once) and today we have brought
them all out again.
Nearly all seem to have survived and some are still in flower.


They will take dryness better than moisture when cold, actually at any time
other than the height of summer.
When I take cuttings I water them in and then don't again until the cuttings
wilt, with doing some late last year it was last week they got their first
water and they showed no sign of wilting despite being totally dry.

Hopefully we will get an early display this year.
Garden (Felixstowe, Suffolk) should be frost free now barring really
extreme weather.

Chili plants (although alleged to be perennial) seriously dead.


Always been my experience too, any that do survive don't get over the winter
properly.

--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK