On 5/21/2014 2:01 PM, Higgs Boson wrote:
Sorry if I'm asking something I "should" know, but all these many years of gardening, I've never understood whether it's OK to cut part-way off leaves that are dried and ugly from the tips half-way down.

Does it upset the plant (Clivia is what I'm on about at the moment) if I "clean up" the look of the flower bed? Will the remaining part of the leaf continue to feed the plant?

Or does cutting off part of a leaf degrade its function?

TIA

HB


I generally leave a small margin of dead leaf, about 1/2 inch. I think
the remaining leaf cannot be affected since anything in the dead area
already stopped contributing any substances produced during the dying.
On the other hand, cutting into the live or currently dying portion of a
leaf might promote further dying.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean, see
http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary