Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Cutting Erigeron

WildlifeloverWildlifelover Posts: 380
in Plants
Afternoon,

im just in the process of slightly tidying up a few plants and my Erigeron karvinskianus have got really big this year and become rather matted - it’s difficult to spread the plants apart.

can they be cut right back to just a few inches or is just a light trim better? The bottom half seems quite brown compared to all the lush growth on top.

 Thanks.

Posts

  • UffUff Posts: 3,199
    I'll be doing mine any time now @Wildlifelover and I'll cut back to about 3ins. or so. 
    SW SCOTLAND but born in Derbyshire
  • WildlifeloverWildlifelover Posts: 380
    Thanks. Does it matter if the bottom half looks brown and dead (which it isn’t as the top half is lovely!). 
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    They can take pruning to just above ground level if you prefer to be tidy!  Mine are still flowering enthusiastically here and often last until December.  In Spring you could also lift and divide the plants if you want smaller, tidier plants and more of them!
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • UffUff Posts: 3,199
    I think you can cut that out @Wildlifelover
    They root easily from cuttings too.
    SW SCOTLAND but born in Derbyshire
  • WildlifeloverWildlifelover Posts: 380
    Great, thanks both. 
  • Songbird-2Songbird-2 Posts: 2,349
    They self seed themselves everywhere too @Wildlifelover! I potted up some babies I found in a pot of lavender in the late summer, and we have about half a dozen free plants now. The rest are getting cut back about now. The one plant we have in a wall planter, at the front of the house, is flowering like mad so will  leave that one a little while longer. The ones in the back garden are beginning to die away now, like yours, so they will get an earlier chop back. We keep finding the babies everywhere, including in the cracks between paving slabs! 
Sign In or Register to comment.