"overwintered" geranium....dead or alive?

I brought in my geranium this winter with the intent of keeping it in the house. I pruned it back a little as I had read to do, keep it dry but not underwatered, and in a cool spot. When I first brought it in, it sent out tons of little shoots and looked very happy. Now, all the leaves have died off and I'm left with a smushy, hollow, yellow stem. My question is, is it dead, or dormant? I've read that you can dig them up and overwinter them like you do bulbs or tubers, so I'm not sure if its dead. I had another one a few years ago that basically the same thing happened to, but I threw it away because I thought I had killed it. Now I wonder if it was just "dormant".
Thanks for any help!
Kristie

Zonal geranium? As in the typical red or white ones? Known now as pelargoniums. Check Plant Files to see which you have.

Or a true geranium, as in perennial?

Zonals prefer dry over wet and feeding at half strength, full sun. Mine are in bloom in the kitchen window but I have had failures when I watered them too much years ago.

Thanks for the post! Mine is just a normal geranium I believe....it is red, just your regular geranium leaf, no variegation....I know they come back every year, this is a start from my MIL's that she has every year. I'm not sure what she does to overwinter hers....I think she must put them in the basement where its cooler.....not sure. So, this smushy thing might be a failure/death?

Kristie

Yes, it probably is. Neglect works well with them. Next time you get a cutting and have it rooted spare the water in the winter but give it all the sunshine you possibly can. Water will kill it faster than anything else.

You have nothing to lose, right now, by dumping the pot out and seeing if it's all mushy. Both crispy and mushy are not good news but more crispies can return from the seemingly dead than mushies ever will.

Good luck in the future.

Don't use a potting mix that has water granules.

Awww....darn it. Thank you for the info though! I will take a look at the roots and stuff. If think it might be a survivor, I'll post my findings and maybe I can nurse it back to health!

Kristie

It's always worth a try.

Ok, so I just dug up the geranium, and it was pretty much holllow and smooshy until about half an inch above the root ball. The roots don't seem to be smooshy or hard and brittle, so I think I'm going to try to save it. I cut off the stem down to the part where it wasn't smooshy....it was hard to tell if it was still green or not. The soil was very soggy....I was hardly ever watering it, and always dumped out excess water, but I had put a bunch of stones on the top of the soil and it was in a cooler window so I don't think it ever really dried out. So, if this poor thing has a chance, do I leave it bare root in like a paper bag or should I let the dirt dry out and repot it and not water much?

Thanks for any ideas!

Kristie

How about some fresh potting mix (no water crystals) that's barely damp and then put it in a sunny window. It will either bounce back...or not.

Ok, sounds good. I hope it works! Thanks for the help!

Kristie

You should see results in about a week or two. If the stump is alive it will probably send up a side shoot and won't grow from the cut off section. Good luck. Water very lightly in about a week - just once.

Ok. I was only watering it before about once every two weeks....now that it s winter I believe it was every four.....I'm getting frustrated as this is the second one I've killed and I thought for sure I knew what I was doing this time around! But, thank you for the advice, and if I kill this one off, maybe I will have better luck with the next....assuming that any geranium that sees me coming doesn't duck under the dirt.

Funny! They really prefer dry to wet and if you get to feeding them only start in early February and at half strength. They also like to be somewhat root bound. Mine are all in bloom in the kitchen window but when the direction of the sun changes they'll look awful by June so they'll summer outside and perk up immediately.

hmmmm.....well, here's the thing...I kept my geranium outside in an area that was almost always shaded, but got very bright indirect light and it did great. This was just a piece pulled off of my mother in law's plant. The pot may be too big for it, since it was just a cutting, but it did really well this summer. I have figured out I had over watered plants in the past so I had gotten a pretty good schedule that seemed to work well....but I had all those rocks on top of the soil and I didn't check the geranium as often....I just thought my little plant was going dormant! lol. hopefully I will bring this one back to life, if not there's always next year. I suppose I coulda asked my mother in law what she does with hers....I think she just puts them in her basement and lets them go dormant, maybe I should stop bringing mine in the house where I'll probably end up killing it, huh?

It all depends how much sun you have for them at your windows. Mine love the south and southwest windows and they thrive and bloom most of the winter.

Mine was in a south window, only maybe ten feet away from where it was outside....the thing is that window has a "porch" on it that is roofed, so not much direct sun gets in. But, outside, the plant was under this awning as well, but probably got some sun as it rose in the morning.....

With the angle of the winter sun it could have been getting more sun than it was when it was outside during the summer. Just look at where you had it inside and check the spot at 11 AM, noon, 2 PM and see the amount of sun coming inside.