News flash! Sunday morning we discovered that our geraniums -three in a pot- were nearly all denuded. I had just removed a Persian Shield from the geranium pot. Deer don't like Persian Shield I had read, and indeed it thrived unmolested last year. So of course I figured removing it had emboldened the deer to feast on the geraniums. So I put it back in the pot. This morning a doe was grazing amongst the underbrush of the wooded area 25 feet from the kitchen window. I quickly went to see if the geranium's few-remaining leaves and single bud were still there. The leaves and buds were gone and so was the Persian Shield. I think I spend more on what deer eat than we spend at the grocery store.

Mindy - annual geraniums (annual for us, that is) don't make tubers, they have thick, fleshy roots. What I do is dig them after they've been frosted lightly a couple times (they're usually still green), shake off whatever loose soil shakes off easily, and throw them in big paper bags (I usually use lawn bags, but brown grocery bags work fine, too). I fold the top of the bag over, and take them into the crawl space, put against the coldest wall. I don't cut anything back at this point, just throw the plants in the bags - roots, top growth, clingy soil, all of it. Come early March or so, I take them out of storage, trim the top growth back to about 2" or so (depending), pot up using fresh potting soil, water, place on the light cart. They sprout pretty fast, and often growth will have started while still in storage. When they start to fill out a bit, I start fertlizing, and I take them out on the patio during the day to get the sunlight they need, bring them in at night. Plant out at planting time, sometime in May. I've been doing this for years, and it works beautifully - my geraniums are getting HUGE, they just get bigger and better every year :0) DH laughed at me one year when he saw me potting them up - he called them the "mummy plants". He thought no way would they grow. So now when we happen to discuss geraniums we refer to them as the mummy plants LOL! My sister told me my grandmother used to hang hers upside down in the cellar, but I've not tried that - don't have a root cellar, and don't really want plants hanging from the rafters downstairs in the laundry room...

Hello Molly, I have grown, Pelargoniums, Hardy Geraniums and Erodiums from saved seed. In the case of Hardy geraniums and Erodiums the seedlings were indistinguishable from the parent plants. I have also collected seedlings from around these plants that were self sown. In the case of pelargonims, they are actually half hardy perennials, I have grown two or three different named varieties from and found the to be identical to the parent plant. I have not attempted to hybridise any of these plants I would suggest that, if space permits, you lift your plants and overwinter them in a frost free environment as well as sowing your saved seed. Ron

Grow them like a house plant. Don't over water. Use the finger test--Put your finger in the soil, and if it feels wet an inch down don't water. Fertilize with a 1/4 strength water soluable fertilizer about 3 times during the winter, and you can put them outside next summer and then treat them like you did this year. Be sure to harden them off when you do. I save my geraniums every year and grow them inside. I Don't let them flower and cut them back if they get leggy. The reason I don't let them flower is that I want the good to go into making new shoots not flowers. I want to take cuttings in the spring. If you want to do this then check out my clippings