Forum home› Problem solving

Pruning a Geum

duncan.smith775duncan.smith775 Posts: 37
in Problem solving
I have a Geum Mrs Bradshaw which has grown too tall and is falling all over my path. I have staked it but it’s not looking very attractive. Does anyone know if it will continue flowering this year if I cut the top half off.
Many thanks, Duncan 

Posts

  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 11,965
    Apparently if you keep deadheading/cutting back geums, they produce more flowers so I would give it a go. Mine are looking so miserable this year, I've hardly any flowers yet. Your Mrs Bradshaw sounds a good 'doer'.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,838
    You can certainly cut back the old flowering stems so I don't see a problem with cutting it back by half to tidy it up.  However, it's natural growth can reach up to half a metre so if it flops again you may need to consider transplanting it somewhere else where it can do its thing and be supported by surrounding plants.

    I grow mine hard and in soil that gets very dry in summer and there's no flopping at all.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,060
    Mine don’t flop either, been in flower for ages and will flower all year if you keep deadheading. You can leave them at the end of the season and collect the seeds, they germinate very easily 

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 11,965
    I'm so envious @Lyn, that looks lovely. Last year I went for all the orange ones, Totally Tangerine, Queen of Orange and another one I've forgotten so perhaps I need to give them more time.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • duncan.smith775duncan.smith775 Posts: 37
    Thanks everyone. I’ll give it a bit of a cut back and keep my fingers crossed.
  • Guernsey Donkey2Guernsey Donkey2 Posts: 6,713
    edited June 2019
    My Geum Mrs Bradshaw and Lady Stratheden were growing in our wide driveway, they looked lovely but did eventually flag as the driveway is like a wind tunnel. The ones I had growing in our flower bed were sheltered with other plants around them and withstood the season looking like Lyn's above. If you want a more compact Geum try Cooky or Orange Queen in the pictures below, neither of which grows so tall or wayward.
  • AuntyRachAuntyRach Posts: 5,156
    My Totally Tangerine started blooming but was quite scruffy, with last year’s foliage, so I pruned back and removed the older leaves last month and it is coming along nicely. 
    My garden and I live in South Wales. 
Sign In or Register to comment.