Yes, you can save geraniums over winter

🤨 And deciding whether white snakeroot is friend or foe

Geraniums are technically perennials. (Photo by Sandra Wei via Unsplash)

Hi, guys!

I’ve been writing about how to overwinter tropical plants for my next Associated Press column (coming next week), and it got me thinking about other plants we grow and toss every year — those we call “annuals” but which are really “tender perennials” not suited to survive winter anywhere except the tropics and subtropics (zones 9-12).

True annuals do exist. They’re the plants that complete their entire lifecycles — from seed to senescence (death) in a 12-month period. Common ones include Browallia americana, Celosia, Cleome (spider flower), Cosmos, Gomphrena, Nicotiana and some poppies. Most do, of course, drop seeds from which new plants grow the following year, but the original plants do not return.

Geraniums (Pelargonium) are popular perennials that are treated as annuals in 4-season climates. But they can live for many years in their native regions — or most anywhere else if you treat them right.