Cutting back geranium

Wildlifelover

Morning,

The Geranium Orion and Patricia have started to get rather messy with lanky stems and seed heads, although they are still producing fresh flowers.

Different websites say different things re when to cut back; some say mid summer, some say autumn.

Should I cut them back now or wait? If I cut back now, do I cut down to the ground or by about half?

 Thanks.

AnniD

I think l'm right in saying that Orion is connected to Rozanne. I would cut it back to about 6 inches and give it a good watering.  New growth should appear within a couple of weeks. I've done this with Azure Rush which is another geranium connected to Rozanne and had a few more flowers as well.

With Patricia, if you look towards the bottom of the plant you should see fresh leaf growth ,just shear it over down to this level and water again. 
That's what l do anyway 

borgadr

I chopped most of my geraniums 2 weeks ago right back to the ground, to give everything in the vicinity a chance. Not sure what varieties they are.  Gave them a feed immediately after, and they have already formed new mounds of fresh leaves - no more bare earth visible.
Going to do one more big one this weekend (it might be a Rozanne, or at least it's Rozanne-like) as it's flopping all over the place.  

Wildlifelover

Thanks. Will the Patricia get to the same growth level later in the year or does it just flower the once and I’ll just get some basal foliage.

AnniD

To be honest, l'm not sure whether it will get to the same height but you should get a few more flowers. I've never noticed about the height as it usually gets overshadowed by later flowering plants here 😳.

Wildlifelover

Thanks for the info. On the website where I purchased the Patricia from, it says “will benefit from a trim in mid summer to remove faded flowers and foliage” - however when I spoke to them today, they said to leave it until the autumn!

As a complete novice, it’s issues like this that confuses me! Is a trim just a few inches of a more drastic cut?

Here’s a pic of the Patricia in question that is looking a bit straggly so should I take the plunge and cut it almost to ground level?

 Thanks. 

JennyJ

Patricia is one of those varieties, like Ann Folkard, that sprawls and spreads producing its flowers on the new growth as it goes. Best planted where it can be left to do that, so that the flowers pop up amongst other plants. Probably not one for the very front of a border where you might want something tidier of habit.

GardenerSuze

For every person you ask' how do you cut back your Hardy Geraniums' you will get different answers. It will also depend on which variety. If it is cut back now it will need alot of water to get it regrowing. 

Wildlifelover

So for the Patricia which I’m asking about, I should leave it until the autumn regardless of how it looks throughout the year?

JennyJ

I would leave it until it's stopped producing new flowers.

Busy-Lizzie

I think it's slightly too soon to cut it, I would wait until it has fewer flowers.