Karilei,
Welcome to zone 8 gardening and congrats on your new place. In my own experience, I put in 4/5 kinds of scented geraniums in spots around my deck entrances (west exposure), gave them no special care, and lost them all except one kind (lost name/variety). Our usual winter lows (Coquille) typically get to about mid 20s.
If I were you, I'd mulch them well over winter and see what happens, but I'd also try some other "saving" ways to get them through the winter.

"Plant Propagation" says that in cold areas, you should pot a few trimmed plants in fall and keep them in a dry, frost free area over winter (garage?), then in late winter begin to give them water to break dormancy, then plant them out when safe from frost. If you already have your plants, I'd just try 3/4 different things to see which worked best.

For plant/seed trading, try the link to Northwest Seed Exchange at the top of this forum's first page. Hope you find a good way to get your plants through winter.
John

Congrats on your new place. That's a really exciting thing. Keep us updated on what you do with it.

John is more local to you than I am (Seattle) so I'd definitely go with his opinion. I'd be surprised if they survive for you without serious protection. You could put a little mini-greenhouse over them, or mulch them heavily, but even then, I wouldn't be too optimistic.

One thing you could do as "insurance" is to take cuttings and root them in water indoors. That way you won't need to make space for the larger plants. That's usually what I do with mine: I pluc a few stems, rip off the lower leaves, and put them in a small vase of water in a partially or mostly sunny window. Usually they grow roots and become small plants. Sometimes I'm bad/lazy and let them make a LOT of water roots (not good as you really should pot up water-rooted cuttings when the roots are an inch or so long), and only repot them in spring.

Some folks like to root them in potting soil rather than water, but I tend to have better luck with water, especially as the days get shorter. I often cram a stem or too of scented geraniums in to small flower arrangements indoors and often just replace the flowers but not the geraniums, and the scented geraniums root.

Just a thought though.

Let us know what you do, and how it works out.
Take care,
Grant, who should have already started a few cuttings himself! :)

Look into some hardy geraniums instead. Some of my favorites-
G. incanum Frances Grate, "Silver Sugar Plum"- silvery finely cut foliage, purple flowers
G. sessifolum nigrum- tiny plants, burgundy foliage, self-sows
G. sanguinum- magenta flowered or Striatum- pink flowered- makes a mound of blooms in the spring like a big bouquet
G. Ann Folkard, Ann Thompson- low growers that spread widely, have a long season of bloom of deep magenta flowers

Avoid some of the purple flowered ones like G. himalayense or G. magnificum, not sure which, because they self-sow like crazy but the new plants don't have the nice purple flowers and are hard to get rid of.

I used to have quite an indoor collection of scented geraniums but can't seem to keep them alive even inside anymore. Live and learn. I hate to lose plants but they are balanced out by the really successful plants that multiply. I used to keep regular geraniums in pots and bring them in every winter into my garage, but I'm getting tired of overwintering plants so am making do more with just the hardy ones, and a few really tough windowsill plants like Oxalis triangularis regnelli, Stapelia, Christmas cactus, and that succulent that makes grey-green rosettes and grows longer and longer unil it trails.

I like to plan for continuous bloom- eary spring-
Pulmonaria, they basically only bloom in the spring, but are great foliage plants with various shadings of silvery patterns
Hellebores- tough perennials, early spring bloom
Daffodils and species tulips

Summer- Irises, daylilies, fuchsias, dahlias, roses, clematis

Fall- asters, Rose of Sharon, hardy Hibiscus, dahlias, roses

Scented geraniums belong to the genus Pelargonium, as in zonal or windowbox geraniums, etc. These tend to be half-hardy perennials in our climate, typically treated as annuals, and cannot reliably be expected to overwinter without protection. Now and again you'll luck out, but I'd follow Grant's recommendations for insurance - they root VERY easily.

No self-sowing from Geranium x magnificum:

"This is often labelled G. ibericum or G. platypetalum in gardens but is in reality a sterile hybrid of this [sic] two species and has been known for nearly a hundred years. It inherits the sticky-hairy flower stalks of the second species. Handsome, deeply cut, hairy, rounded leaves, often richly tinted in autumn. Copious flowers, darkly veined, ideal with Rose 'Nevada'" -- Thomas, PERENNIAL GARDEN PLANTS

Thanks for the info, Ron. I suppose it's probably G. himalayense that self-seeds. I guess I should get rid of it to end my weed problem. G. macrorrhizum may also self-sow. I use it in very tough situations like dry shade or banks where it performs well but don't like it in a regular garden bed.

I have had so-called 'Johnson's Blue' spread, but I am not sure it's not just by creeping roots. A friend who is interested in the identification of 'Johnson's Blue' has said ones sold here are not, with seedlings of those appearing after planting. She calls it G. himalayense.

I have also seen G. himalayense 'Gravetye' (or facsimile) offered here as 'Johnson's Blue'.

Something else thats not less work but lets you have your cake and eat it too.
Put the tender flowering plants you want to over winter in a shelter into the ground in pots that will alow them to grow comfortably, but not any bigger than it must have, then when you get close to the first frost date, yank the pot, put it where your going to overwinter it, and replace with a same size pot of something else that can winter in the ground. (winter pansies or some thing.) you could have those ready to go. I like to keep some stuff out in front mostly when it looks good, then move it back after its done and stick something else there. especially stuff that could be invasive that I dont want directly in the ground like lilly of the valley

Here is hardy Geranium Anne Thompson. The spring growth is trailing out 4' and a newer clump is growing up in the center, with a few scattered blooms. There has been continuous bloom since late spring.

You are all so wonderful to take the time to respond and so thorough in your responses! Thanks for all the shared wisdom. Sigh. I guess I'll try my black thumb hand at overwintering them in pots inside the house so I can, at the very least, continue to enjoy them. I think I'm an addict, really. I can't wait to build up my collection. I'm finding myself just loving them intermixed with my roses in my miniarrangements. And I love that my toddler can "bring me some smells" and touch all she wants.

Now, what type of pot, draining, soil...?

Should I be taking cuttings to try to propogate soon? The rains seem to have started so I can't imagine that the frost is far behind.

Kari

Dear Kari,
Now that winter has come and gone, please post an update on your scented geraniums, and tell us what you did and if they survived.

I found your post by doing a 'scented geranium' search. I was under the impression that scented geraniums weren't hardy in zone 8, but last fall I met a neighbor who gave me one in a pot, and assured me that they lived over in her garden.

I never got it in the ground, just left it in a sheltered spot, and was amazed to find that it was sending out new growth this spring. It looks amazingly healthy right now!

I have no idea what kind it is...has a minty smell.

Daphne in Tacoma

Hi everybody. I saw Geranium 'Silver Sugar Plum' at a local nursery here in SE MICHIGAN today and it was love at first sight. I bought 2 huge ones even though they were pricey -- $12. It was listed as G. sanguineum 'Silver Sugar Plum', even though as a geraniophile I was skeptical that it was G. sanguineum. I should have known better. I see when I look on line that it is a hybrid but clearly has G. incanum in it -- a tender species to be sure.

Does anybody have enough experience with this to have a clue whether I might be able to overwinter it here? I can get most z 6 perennials through winters, no problem. And I even have a few plants officially z7 that do OK. I also bought 'Sweet Heidy' which should not be a problem, obviously with G. wallichianum parentage based on the foliage and flowers.

Anyw suggestions from those in milder climates?

David

I find Silver Sugar Plum easy to grow from a division with a few roots, so you could start some to overwinter in case it doesn't make it. My original clump died off and now I have it in a different place from a division, or possibly it self seeds.

G. sanguinum self-sows here and there and makes such gorgeous low mounds of neat foliage studded with colorful flowers in spring, like a big bouquet. I'm going to try to collect some seed and spread it around a little more this year. It would be lovely covering most of the ground in some of my typically weedy areas. I have the pink one and the deep magenta one. The nasty deer were eating some of my hardy geraniums down to the ground and I had to put a fence around them but they are springing back into bloom. Spinners is a very nice deep blue-purple. Brookside has grown up 2+' and is covered with blue flowers, too.

I don't know about the hardiness in other zones, I'm in 8.

Well I got an answer from Robin Parer of the nursery Geraniaceae in Marin Co CA. Robin is maybe the most distinguished geraniophile in the US and her nursery has the goal of selling most if not all of the hardy geraniums available, as well as quite a few erodiums and scented pelargoniums. She is extremely knowledgeable and has great plants which may well be impossible to find elsewhere in the US (especially now that Heronsood is no longer). Robin says that this hybrid selection is a cross of G. incanum and robustum, both from S Africa, with robutum from a much colder area. She said she doubts that this plant will be hardy in anything colder than z 8 (which obviously leaves me, well, "out in the cold"). I called the nursery where I bought the 2 plants and talked to the perennials manager. She seemed very non-plused and didn't seem to care much. But they do guarantee all their plants for a year, including overwintering. So I think I will probably keep them, maybe even propagate some, and I can always get my money back next year when they will probably croak over the winter outside. Interesting to me that the nursery didn't seem to care that the plant was mislabelled as to parentage and obviously is not a very cold hardy geranium. And it's normally a pretty good nursery too.

Robin says that this propagates easily from stem cuttings too like most S. African geraniums.

And yes, of course, I have grown Spinners and Brookside and lots of forms of G. sanguineum as well as dozens of other geraniums for years. Here, the deer and rabbits mostly leave geraniums alone (except G. phaeum forms).

David