Bill's Geraniums

My friend Bill brings geraniums in from the pots and beds around town every fall.  He tinkers with them and I give them a home with east light. 

This fall Bill put fertilizer on the plants and repotted them. He installed them on a big table (well, it is really a door on supports) that's protected with plastic and tin foil. The geraniums are in a room that is kept around fifty degrees. 

The plants like the first light of the day and the cool temperatures. Either Bill or I will give them some water occasionally and these plants, brought in from the cold, will have a safe haven for the winter.

My Dad used to pull geraniums out of the soil in the fall and store them in paper grocery bags in the basement. Lots of them survived that regimen. It must be some kind of garden challenge, this "bringing in the geraniums" mania, that Bill and I inherited. By February, with green leaves and bright blossoms, the mania will make sense. 

For now it is a part of the rite of passage that us northerners do before the snow flies. Along with draining the garden hoses and stacking the tomato cages, we bring in the geraniums.