over wintering

[sewcharming]

can any one tell me how to over winter Fuchsias and Geranium's?

[Kay Ninegriptight]

That's a good TOG question Sew. here we are the day before the longest day and you are asking about over wintering plants! Seriously though the answer I think is ..it depends on where you live and what sort they are as well as issues such as do you want to keep them in flower? If the latter I find in my area [north Scotland the only place is indoors in an even temp for all but the most robust Fuchsia. Some of course are very hardy and don't care much about the cold weather. Some are even evergreens to an extent. I'm talking about fuchsias here. I don't think there is a geranium that will survive low temps so they do need to come inside.

I have successfully kept certain types of fuchsias outside in pots for several winters now. I cover them in straw and sacking. They die back but come again in late spring. I prune them then. One type is swing-time I can't remember the name of the other one. I hope this helps a bit.

[goona]

As Kay has said it depends where you live ,in the south where I am I repot them before the first frost,trim off most of the foliage and overwinter them in a greenhouse (unheated) watering them only now and again ,if a heavy frost is forecast I cover them with garden fleece. once frosts are over I increase the watering once new growth has started.
Hope this helps
Goona

[rosieduck]

I take cuttings from the geraniums, and keep them on the bedroom windowsill. I've been lucky with the cuttings for two seasons now. My fushias are hardy so they stay in the garden. Then I get all excited in spring when I see them coming back!
Rose.

[Fi]

Bubble wrap is an excellent way of protecting less than fully hardy plants left out in the garden overwinter. It may look odd, but it protects the plants from both frosts and icy winds, which often do just as much damage as frosts. It's worth trying it with hardy fuschias, because it may mean that the whole shrub will survive, so the next year it will not have to regrow from ground level, thus leading to a bigger plant and thus more flowers.
I'm usually very lazy and buy new geraniums each spring, but since ours continued to flower in their window boxes until January of this year, I'm going to try covering the lot in bubble wrap this winter and see how many survive through till next spring.