Question
I left my newly purchased geraniums out overnight by accident.  They were hit by frost.  Is there anything I can do to salvage these plants?

Answer
Geraniums - domestic Pelargoniums, that is, and not the wild genus that scientists refer to as 'Geranium' - are hardy to about 28 degrees F.  A night of frost would not destroy them under normal conditions ... UNLESS they were accustomed to a balmy, tropical greenhouse environment, which unfortunately yours most certainly were.

Depending on the extent of damage, you can coax them or not back to blooming health by applying one or more of the fairly expensive (does $15 for 10 treatments sound expensive to you?) hormones available at your garden center or on the internet.  However, these Geraniums that we buy every year are so cheap many people consider them disposable after a single season, not even worth the effort required to over-winter them.

'Messenger' is the product I most often recommend for plants in distress.  This is the state of the art when it comes to triage care for plants.  There's a patent on it, and it was developed at Cornell Ag.  Need I say more?

There are others out there.  If the hearts of your Geraniums are still beating and you think you detect brain activity, by all means, give it a shot.  But if these plants are now deformed and it will take a season to get them looking new again, bury the dead and let them R.I.P.  And be more careful.

P.S. - Don't think you're the first or the last person who ever made this mistake.  EVERYBODY does.  There are people out there who are truly traumatized by this experience, too.  Think of those who 'inherited' a plant cared for by a deceased green thumb, over decades, and then suddenly lost it in one little mistake.  It happens.  Life is like that.

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER