How do you over-winter garden annuals that don't have seeds?

Over the years, I have tried different ways to overwinter geraniums and fuchsia, in particular.
I have brown bagged geraniums, kept them in the garage and propogated from cuttings to keep them going with varying degrees of success. I think I have liked cuttings the best . With fuchsia I have also most often just carried rooted cuttings through the winter, but I have also buried fuchsia baskets below the frost to carry them on the next year.

I would like to know what others do and have done to keep annuals going other then collecting seed.

 

My fushias always came back up without effort. The geraniums I just bring in and give a home on a windowsill for the winter, treating it more like a house plant.

 

What exactly do you do when you brown bag fushia's?
(excuse the ignorance)
Thanks

Buzz

 

I was unclear. I have never used bags for fuchsias; only for geraniums.

 

no problem, thought that would be too easy.

Interested in the brown bag geranium method though.
I have tried too many times to take cuttings and bring them into the house for the winter. I have also tried to leave them in the pots and put them in the outside garage for the winter. Cool out there, still some light from the windows though. Never much success.

Buzz

 

The brown bag method is described here: http://tinyurl.com/ge6rg
The poster says:" To save geraniums through winter, gently dig them out of the garden before a killing frost, shake off soil, and place them in brown paper bags.
After a couple of days, pull another brown bag over the top and store the plants in a cold area with temperatures around 40° if possible.
In early spring, remove the plants, clean off the dead leaves, pot them in soil, and water well. Prune to about 4 to 6 inches.
Some of my geraniums have overwintered this way for more than 20 years.
– Mrs. Harold B., Moorefield, Ontario"
I add that I have always cleaned the damaged leaves off before bagging and made certain the foliage was dry. I hung the bags in a dark, unheated basement. . The neighbour who taught me was far more successful with survival rate then I was. I think the key is to let them breathe but not desiccate.

Another caution is that most geranium stock will eventually have viruses and reduced flowers. I think it is a good idea to get new stock every three years to get clean plants.

The most success I have had with fuchsia storage has been to cut them back to about 6-8 inches and dry back the pots to wilt, then dig a hole and bury the whole pot in a drained area of the garden. You have to bring them out the end of Feb anyway to get the time to set flowers by Mother’s Day so just drying them back, cutting them back, and resting them in a dark, cool area of might be easier.

My Grandmother always kept Fuchsias as a houseplant, according to my father, as far back as he could remember as a boy in Edmonton and he was born in 1905.

 

thanks so much. I am going to try the brown bag method.

Buzz.