Turkish sage & Begenias

Copperdog · October 2015

Morning gardeners! just making the most of the lovely weather today and whilst on route to sweep up some leaves from the grass I got distracted at the bed. Can I ask what do the majority of you do with turkish sage leaves? I will leave the stems in tack over winter but are you meant to pull the brown leaves off or leave the whole thing to overwinter, same thing with Begenia, do you pull of the brown leaves? Some come away in your hand so thats fine but some I find I'm really tugging to pull some of the rotten looking leaves off and then wonder if I'm taking away far too much! what do you all do please?

nutcutlet · October 2015

re the Bergenias, brown leaves are dead so cut them off if they don't pull.

I don't know what turkish sage is, sorry

Dovefromabove · October 2015

Nut Mr Google tells me it's another name for Phlomis russeliana

Copperdog · October 2015

Hello Nutcutlet and Dove, thank you for helping me! Yes I had a bit of brain freeze at the computer when I was trying to remember the proper name for the Sage! Do you both tend to cut them off or do you generally just leave them for creatures to hide under. I was tidying up a Rodgersia thats leaves had basically gone completely brown just now and were all laying over the crown - i scooped them up into a bucket and a frog jumped out and gave me a fright! Not sure if leaving the brown debris of stuff is good of does it encourage fungi?

Dovefromabove · October 2015

I do most of my tidying up in the early spring - as you say, the wildlife need somewhere to spend the winter. Fungi are useful - they break down organic matter and incorporate it into the soil. Not a problem

nutcutlet · October 2015

Phlomis, I was wondering if it might be perovskia.

The phlomis stems look great with a frost on through the winter

Turkish sage & Begenias

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