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!*

--
The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom.
Henry Ward Beecher


Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of
the originality.
Beatrix Potter

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
William Butler Yeats

www.pictureparables.com




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It sounds like you have Johnson's Blue (or Johnson Blue or Blue Johnson
whatever the dang this is called --- trying to put it out of my memory). IMO
it's an awful plant, almost a noxious weed. It sprawls all over, takes over
the garden, and is nigh unto impossible to kill. I tried to rid a garden
patch of them over two years ago, and I found some still trying to grow this
spring.

Does anybody really like this plant? I'd really like to know. I imagine that
if you had a big space to fill and liked a bit of wildness, it might have
its uses. Naw!



"susabean" wrote in message
...
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!*

--
The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom.
Henry Ward Beecher


Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some
of
the originality.
Beatrix Potter

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
William Butler Yeats

www.pictureparables.com




---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.489 / Virus Database: 288 - Release Date: 06/10/2003

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/

"susabean" wrote in
:

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.


I have more than several. There's an area about 10' x 15' where it
serves as ground cover. Yes, this spring they are better than ever!
Must have loved our cold winter. They should finish blooming in
another couple of weeks, at which time I will take my weed string
trimmer to them and leave them about ankle high. Fresh foliage should
grow back and look decent all summer. I may even thin them out some
and plant extras elsewhere (maybe in someone else's garden!).

Jim
Zone 6, Niagara

"Jasper" wrote in message
...
It sounds like you have Johnson's Blue (or Johnson Blue or Blue Johnson
whatever the dang this is called --- trying to put it out of my memory).
IMO
it's an awful plant, almost a noxious weed. It sprawls all over, takes
over
the garden, and is nigh unto impossible to kill. I tried to rid a garden
patch of them over two years ago, and I found some still trying to grow
this
spring.

Does anybody really like this plant? I'd really like to know. I imagine
that
if you had a big space to fill and liked a bit of wildness, it might have
its uses. Naw!

I have several and I do like them. One variety called "Splish Splash" has
been marginal. It survives and blooms but never gets very large and looks
weedy. My "New Hampshire Purple" is well behaved, forming a neat mound and
flowering freely for weeks with the occasional bloom from early spring
though fall. The trouble child is "Clairdge Druce." It spreads quite
freely forming mounds approaching 3 feet in diameter. It is covered with
flowers right now and will remain in bloom for weeks. This one self seeds
and I have found new plants in remote beds. You can divide it in the spring
to control its size. I find that it wilts dramatically after being divided,
but will recover in a couple of weeks. I got this one as three very small
plants from Bluestone Perennials. I was worried that it wouldn't do much
but the second year it spread like crazy. By the third year I was dividing
it and giving away pieces. I think I would grow them just for the foliage.

"Jasper" wrote in message
...
It sounds like you have Johnson's Blue (or Johnson Blue or Blue Johnson
whatever the dang this is called --- trying to put it out of my memory).
IMO
it's an awful plant, almost a noxious weed. It sprawls all over, takes
over
the garden, and is nigh unto impossible to kill. I tried to rid a garden
patch of them over two years ago, and I found some still trying to grow
this
spring.

Does anybody really like this plant? I'd really like to know. I imagine
that
if you had a big space to fill and liked a bit of wildness, it might have
its uses. Naw!

I have a few cranesbills, one of them 'Johnson's Blue'. It's the only one
of mine that hasn't spread. It doesn't bloom for very long either. I just
got a 'Brookside' which is supposed to be similar but with a longer
blooming period. We shall see.

'Claridge Druce' and 'Sangiunium Stratium' both spread.

"Jasper" wrote in message m...
It sounds like you have Johnson's Blue (or Johnson Blue or Blue Johnson
whatever the dang this is called --- trying to put it out of my memory). IMO
it's an awful plant, almost a noxious weed. It sprawls all over, takes over
the garden, and is nigh unto impossible to kill. I tried to rid a garden
patch of them over two years ago, and I found some still trying to grow this
spring.

Does anybody really like this plant? I'd really like to know. I imagine that
if you had a big space to fill and liked a bit of wildness, it might have
its uses. Naw!

Could well be Johnson's Blue, or even its wild parent G.pratense,
Meadow Cranesbill, which grows like mad for me except where I want it
to. It seems I see another one or more I didn't know I had every day.
I do actually love the thing, especially when the sun is low and
shines through the petals; and the leaves take on lovely red tints;
but I wish it would do what it's told.

I agree that meadow cranesbill's too wild-looking for the conventional
flower-bed, though. Where I want it to naturalize in quantity is in my
meadow patch.

Mike.

Thanks, all! They look fine, still bloomin' away......they are a lovely
shade of deep blue/purple, and I really love them! I love to watch the bees
flit through them, and the bumble bees trying to put their full weight into
the blossoms just make me laugh! I do think I might need to extend the bed,
though!

thanks again,
Tammy

--
The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom.
Henry Ward Beecher


Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of
the originality.
Beatrix Potter

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
William Butler Yeats

www.pictureparables.com




---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.489 / Virus Database: 288 - Release Date: 06/10/2003