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totally tangerine geum

Had this three years 
I cutted back last year 
today I notice when deadheading that underneath the green foliage is all black and woodly 
Is anything I can do 

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  • lilysillylilysilly Posts: 511
    I have had this happen with a more mature plant of geum Totally Tangerine.
    I dug up the whole plant and broke off each section of plant that had developed a woody stem, and discarded the old tap roots. Each piece was sort of like a black carrot with a leafy top.
    I then planted each piece of root, each about 5 inches long, up to its leaves, spacing the roots 8 inches apart in a patch of freshly dug garden soil. Each piece produced fresh white roots from the top of the division and rooted into the ground . I now have 9 new geum plants with a healthy rosette of leaves and flowers.
    I did this back in April as l needed to move the mature plant . There was no longer a main crown, that you could just chop in half. I didn't want to lose the plant so thought I'd give it a go. I had successfully done the same with a Hardy geranium before so thought it might work. 
    I can't advise whether l would do it now or wait until next spring though. I suppose you could always do two or three now by breaking off long bits of woody based stems and try, leaving the original plant to keep growing.
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    I believe autumn or spring would be better. Certainly, don't dig anything up if you are in the middle of a drought, as we are in my area.
  • amberspyamberspy Posts: 382
    Yeah I give it a go in autumn 
    to be honest I’ve been thinking of actually replacing it for sometime before I saw the blackness 
    for something a bit more modern 
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