A FLOWER-NABBING!

Remember my beautiful geraniums? I actually bought these beauties in the summer of 2011 and kept them alive all winter.

There was three plant in 2011 however by the spring of 2012 they had grown so tall that I gently broke off the longer sections, stuck them into a clear glass of water and popped them on the window sill, similar to how I encouraged my spider plants to grow roots.

When it was warm enough to plant, I relocated my six plants outside where they flourished, budded and bloomed. Well, all but one; one geranium just didn’t want to co-operate but at least she is still alive so I shouldn’t complain too much.

Now where was I? Oh yeah….the flower-nabbing!

Well – I should really clarify and say it wasn’t quite a flower-nabbing, rather it was more of a flower rescue. All of which was executed by yours truly. 😉 Hey, it got your attention didn’t it? Okay then, on with the story.

Things have been getting quite chilly up here in the north and if I wanted to try keep my geranium havesting/multiplying streak going, I would have be sure to get them indoors before a frost hit.

So after my perusal of emails, blogs, etc., I checked the weather. My eyes were immdiately drawn to the big bolded letters across my forcast…..“FROST WARNING”…. it was time.

Out came the new pots (seriously, how cute are these?!). The picture doesn’t really do them justice, they are a lot bigger than they look.

After filling them a quarter of the way with fresh planting soil, I began digging up my geraniums and moving them into the pots. Once that was competed I poured more soil around each plant and packed it down with my hands.

  

Things got a little messy but since I was running out of daylight, I snapped a couple of pictures and moved these beauties into the house.

Pretty cute, if I do say so myself.  Eventually these will be scattered more evenly around the house but for right now, I think they are perfect right where they are.

Any of you planning on keeping your flowers indoors this winter?

A Teeny Tiny Experiment

The temperatures are slowly but surely dropping and with that brings the risk of frost; this is bad news for my beautiful deep purple petunias.

They have done such a great job of flowering all summer, the thought of letting them parish in the cold winter months is not one I am willing to accept.

That is when a thought popped into my head: could I defy all the odds and keep my petunias indoors and alive throughout the winter?

Everything I read states that Petunias are annuals so it is inevitable that they will die off after a period of time. But they also re-seed themselves and that is what keeps the blooms coming.

This brings me to my experiment; as the colder months creep up on us, I am going to bring my pots of petunias indoors and do my best to keep those babies blooming year round. After all, I did it with my geraniums, perhaps I can also do it with the petunias.

Just in case that doesn’t work, I also have a backup experiment/plan. I am going to try and harvest the seeds from the petunias and replant them in the spring….if greenhouses do it, why can’t I? After a quick search online I found out how to harvest the seeds from petunias.

Step one: Pinch/break off the flower from the plant.

Step two: I laid out a paper towel to catch any seeds that my fall out but you could do this over a pie tin, dish or whatever else you may choose. Then separate the flower from the green stem.

Step three: Remove the seeds from the flower portion of the plant. I think those are the seeds….but am not quite sure. We’ll see if I’m right when spring comes. Hang on to your hats – this could be an epic fail. 😉

Step four: lay seeds out for a couple of days so that they dry and don’t mold when you store them. Then store seeds in a dry place over the winter.

For all you gardeners out there, what do you think? Will petunias live throughout the winter or will I have to rely on my seed harvest?