03-02-2003, 05:45 PM
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pruning questions
In article ,
(rosemarie face) wrote:
Thanks .... but it still didn't answer how to prune Russian Sage and
Coreopsis ! If they self seed and spread that's fine with me . I have
lots of space in my garden . So how exactly do I prune them ???
Thanks ! Rosie z5 IN
Russian sage can be trimmed back to within a foot of the ground & will
grow back rapidly. But I'm not trimming mine much at all this spring, so I
can see what happens with the old stems, would be nice if they bulked up
into wood, but the usual recommendation is to trim them back just before
spring & let them start over.
The commonly offered coreopsis "Moonbeam" is sterile meaning it will never
self-seed, but can be dug up & divided every few years. Other varieties
will probably self-seed, maybe even do so aggressively. I'd let them die
back naturally in their own good time, unless they just looked too
homely-dead from winter & I couldn't stand to look at the dead bits. When
back in bloom "pruning" can just mean pinching off spent flowers, though
for Moonbeam I don't even do that & it blooms clear to autumn even without
deadheading. "Zagreb" might benefit more from deadheading.
-paghat the ratgirl
--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/
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