This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Perennial Geraniums
susiejennie
Posts: 20
in Talkback
My colection of different geranium are starting to go over. Monty, last week, said to cut them right down and they will more than likely flower again. Seems drastic. I did one clump and there are a lot of rizome type stems. Do I leave these and when would I divide them. Please help
0
Posts
Many thanks Verdun. I love gardening but dont have the confidence. I will cut them back (dont know names - Lovely blue, white with pink vein, deep pink) and will give them a feed and water and then wait.
Yes, chop them down and stand well back
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I wonder if it depends on the garden and area but when I shear mine right back they never grow back that year - we are heavy clay and 80% shade.
Now I spend an hour or two cutting all the individual spent heads off every few weeks and then they grow back pretty quickly and I get repeat flowering all summer.
Thanks again. Yes, Lou12, I usually do that - keep deadheading but am going to try the massacre. Must say the ones I have chopped back are at least leafing up.
Rather than deadheading which can take ages, you can just pull the stems with dying flowers on them. They come away easily and at least you are left with foliage rather than short bare stems. The geraniums usually come back but by pulling just the spent flower stems you at least leave yourself with a mound of foliage in the meantime (and it's quicker than deadheading. Good luck.