In article , "susabean"
wrote:

I have several cranesbills in my garden. One is shrubby and has white
flowers. The other has blue flowers and was shrubby last year, but has
TAKEN OFF!! this year. It has gone bonkers, and is taking over my garden!
I pruned it back pretty good, and then got to thinking......is it OK to cut
back the cranesbill right now? I hope so......

I'm thinking its ok, but I guess I'm looking for reassurance I didn't commit
a big blunder. Can't seem to find any info in any of my books on cutting it
back.

Thanks.
Tammy
*who should probably ask first, *then* do!*


I love crane's-bills. A few of them approach bing invasive, but I don't
mind; the really aggressive ones have to be ripped back to a small size
pretty much constantly or they'll smother everything around them. Nothing
will do them in, so you can clip them back a little, or completely to the
ground, & two weeks later they'll be back & even blooming anew. So you did
it no harm at all.

Others are small & compact & don't spread much at all & those wouldn't
like to be cut back as much. They'll "fill in" anywhere. A few are nearly
everygreen but most die back in winter, & the ones that don't come back
until May, they're good to have in the same locations as early bulbs &
irises, as the cranesbills fill in the spaces when the early bulbs are
done, or help hide crappy-looking iris leaves that remain after bulbs are
done blooming.

There are drought-hardy crane's-bills, soggy-spot crane's-bills, bright
sun & full shade crane's-bills -- one can find one for any part of the
garden one wishes. At last count I had over twenty different species of
crane's-bills scattered here & there. I have webpages for several of them,
indexed he
http://www.paghat.com/garden4.html

I recently added some pots a close relative of the hardy geraniums,
Erodium chamaedryoides, a Heron's-bill that looks just like one of the
bigger crane's-bill clumps except the clump is only a couple inches high,
the leaves a half-inch small, the flowers no bigger than a pinky
fingernail -- like a dollhouse version of a crane's-bill.

-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/