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Forgot to deadhead hebe- to prune or not

mattychinmattychin Posts: 11
in Problem solving
Hi, 1st post, just joined but many year fan of GW. I couldn't find advice for my problem.
I forgot to deadhead this beautiful hebe which I think is a bluestar. It flowered prolifically the whole summer last year but this year just two or so flowers😥
So do I prune this back now to encourage flowering?or  have I missed the boat this year? I'll be awfully sad if the latter. Thanks in advance. 

Posts

  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    I think the problem with flowering has been the weather. The earlier hot spell (end of March? ) probably encouraged those flowers to bloom, then it got cold and wet again both of which hebes don't like. It won't hurt to carefully snip off those last year's dead flowers and give it a feed but I wouldn't do more than that at the moment. Hopefully if the weather ever turns warm again you'll get more flowers.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • InglezinhoInglezinho Posts: 568
    Hebes don't like pruning. They never get very big, so it isn't necessary anyway.
    Everyone likes butterflies. Nobody likes caterpillars.
  • robairdmacraignilrobairdmacraignil Posts: 782
    I have a few different hebes and never deadheaded any of them and they flower away anyway. Probably just too early for the main flowering this year. I don't have the same variety but the one I have most of seems to flower twice a year with the odd flower popping up at other times in between.
    https://www.youtube.com/user/sustainableveg/videos
  • mattychinmattychin Posts: 11
    Brill, thankyou for the advice 😁👍👍👍
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    No dead heading here either, would be difficult and fiddly, they always come back
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    The dead flowers are unsightly more than anything else, and you can usually just pull them off by hand, but it won't prevent re flowering.  :)
    Many of them do get big, so that's a rather odd comment, but some don't take kindly to being pruned back hard, especially in consistently cold/wet areas. Not all of them are reliably hardy beyond about minus 5 or 6, and many have been affected this winter. Once cold and wet gets into them they often don't come back.
    Any pruning is best done after flowering, and doing a little every couple of years or so can prevent them getting too big for the space.
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • IlikeplantsIlikeplants Posts: 894
    Good to know, I deadheaded last year, it was a faff. Mine are getting leggy and big. Would like a hard prune so might risk it this autumn.
  • mattychinmattychin Posts: 11
    Ilikeplants said:
    Good to know, I deadheaded last year, it was a faff. Mine are getting leggy and big. Would like a hard prune so might risk it this autumn.
    It may be a good idea to propagate them and start new bushy baby hebes,. I took about ten cuttings off mine in the autumn and all have taken! It's quite a big plant (3feet or so) and grew very fast last year after it was split and gifted to me.
    I also had 'heartbreaker' (small, slow growing, pink variegated leaved) years ago and they got leggier and leggier until they died... I thought I'd done something wrong but from reading up some hebes are best considered as short lived and propagated as and when they get leggy.
  • mattychinmattychin Posts: 11
    Happy to report that its flowering profusely again, just much later this year! 
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Good result  :)
    That'll save you worrying about deadheading  ;)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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