[nitiram]

What  has happened to my geraniums ..they have gone all furry and the leaves have fallen off. They were well established cuttings and plants overwintering in a small unheated greenhouse on the lottie.  The green house has had no ventilation over winter and seems to be damp inside...should I leave the door open a bit or make a hole in the polythene???   Then the draft and rainwill get in..Help please

[kooringa]

Sounds like you will have lost them to mould and mildew - due to lack of ventilation.  

What happens is that the potted plants are in damp soil and the water evaporates when it warms up, then when it cools down it runs down the plastic - a lovely environment for that sort of thing - a bit like bathrooms and shower cubicles if you do not ventilate them.

You'll need to leave part of your plastic green house unzipped a bit for the air to get too plants in the future or remember to open and close it each day.

It any of them have healthy green bits left on them, you could cut off the mouldy bits, clean up the top of the soil and keep your fingers crossed.  I  don't suppose that you have been watering them over winter have you?  I did that once and had the same result.  

Sadly we all have disasters, almost every year of one sort or another!

[John]

We had some mould on Val's flower things  :!:  she wiped them off with a kitchen roll and they seem to be doing fine. Maybe all is not lost.

[nitiram]

ah....I have been watering over winter....er...everything   Well, they were all dried out. Not too much. The hard wood cuttings are doing fine, the rosemary slips even have flowers on, but all the geraniums and one of the fuschia's or deceased. Should I toss the compost out as well that was in the pots?

[John]

Are you sure they are dead not just dormant?

Not sure about the compost, my feeling is that there are mould spores everywhere anyway so maybe re-use on something else.

[nitiram]

Even though all the leaves had gone furry and fallen off could the roots still be alive?  Should I repot into fresh compost if the spores are in the present compost?

[John]

OK - I've spoken to she who must be obeyed (by me) and these are the definative instructions for overwintering pelargoniums.

Remove plant from compost, remove all leaves and cut down the stems to 4" above soil level. Shake compost off the roots and trim these back to about 2".

Half fill a deep (6" at least) box with seed compost - you don't want too many nutrients - and place plants in so they do not touch. Fill with compost to cover the roots.

Water in initially then leave in a frost free place. Only water sparingly if it gets bone dry.

Come the spring when the plant shows signs of life again, repot as you wish into growing compost and you can take cuttings from the new shoots if you wish.

The method works for her every year.- it looks really cruel but it does produce fine plants.

[nitiram]

ah...I did it wrong then!!!!      Just bunged them in the usual 6" pots and kept watering them. well it is first time I've done it.  Don't know why i bothered as I checked today and even after all the snow for a week the geraniums in the garden are still alive and budding...