Verbena Bonariensis
Captain Pugwash
Posts: 1
in Plants
I have a new VB which has done really well. Lots of flowers, height and spread. It is still in flower now, but the flowers are beginning to go. Can I just cut the plant down? or should I keep deadheading it?
Thankyou
0
Posts
i dont cut mine down till around dec or jan, then i have another bed of them which i only cut down to about 18 inches off ground they both do well i leave the heads on till they go to seed then collect them
It depends on where you live as VB are not always hardy, I live just south of Oxford and have lost several of these in bad winters, so I don't cut mine down until my spring tidy-up, usually March, this protects the new growth and also allows them to self seed. If they seed themselves too much just dig up the ones you don't want, pot up and give them to friends.
Am in WManchester & I too leave them be, sometimes I dont even get round to mulching them. I had one that had self-seeded into a crack between paving & that survived for a couple of yrs until a workmans' boot landed on it!
I do however always take cuttings every late summer to add to/replace mine the next yr. Despite a frost recently, all mine still in flower. I never bother to deadhead, partly because I cant easily reach them. J.
I do both, cut some down that are in the way or just to tidy up but if they are doing no harm I leave them. Mine have survived -18c 2 winters ago. and I have seedling popping up all over the garden. They do seem to seed in between crack and on gravel. I would leave the seed heads on this year and you will more or less guarantee seedlings next year.
A lot of my garden is fairly sheltered so perhaps that helps.
I have given them away to friends and relations and all from 1 original plant.
Chris.