Growing Together: A Gardening Podcast · Forum Communications Co.

Bring the color inside by overwintering plants

·40 min·2 clips

Don says a geranium can go from a summer pot to a basement greenhouse all winter.

1. Growing Together: A Gardening Podcast centers on overwintering plants such as geraniums, mandevilla, hibiscus, coleus, sweet potato vine, begonias, and snowstorm bacopa. 2. John Lamb hosts with Don Kinsler, the North Dakota State University Extension horticulturist for Cass County, whose practical methods drive the episode. 3. The episode asks how gardeners can keep summer plants alive indoors through winter and bring them back outside in spring. 4. A listener named Sarah asks whether a large Carl Forster grass should be divided in fall or next spring for her son’s new home. 5. Don says Carl Forster is the ornamental grass seen in front of banks, dentist offices, and credit unions across the region. 6. He recommends leaving the grass standing through winter because the seed heads add structure and shelter little pollinating bees in the hollow stems. 7. Don says the grass should be cut back in early spring, around the end of March or early April, before new growth starts. 8. For division, he prefers waiting until a little growth appears so he can find a live clump around the perimeter instead of a dead center. 9. Don then shifts to geraniums, which he calls a classic container flower that people often overwinter indoors and return to patios in spring. 10. He says he and Mary winter about 100 geraniums, and at roughly $5 each, that represents about $500 of plants. 11. His preferred method is to lift each geranium from the outdoor planter before frost, cut the stems back to about two inches above the root system, and pot each plant into a four-and-a-half or five-inch container. 12. He uses a good-quality potting mix with peat and perlite, then waters thoroughly and sets the small pots close together under basement lights. 13. Don says regular LED lights work well if they are kept only two to three inches above the geraniums and adjusted as the plants grow. 14. He says bare stems usually push out new leaves in two to three weeks and may even bloom in January or early February. 15. By March, he trims the winter growth again, removes buds and flowers, and fertilizes every couple of weeks so the plants are ready by May. 16. Don says he has wintered the same geraniums for seven years and mentions a woman in Grand Forks who kept hers for 40 years. 17. He explains that he cuts plants back hard because older geraniums become woody and leggy, while fresh growth blooms better. 18. The conversation is practical and method-driven, with John repeatedly asking why each step works and Don answering in plain terms. 19. Gardeners who want winter color and compact indoor projects will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners looking for a purely ornamental or nontechnical gardening chat may skip it.

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