Bergenias
Hello again everyone, I have just tidied up the bergenia cordifolia this year. First time I have cut the flower stalks down after flowering - usually i just leave them. What is best to do cut down or leave? also as i don't use any warfare on my garden (totally organic) and you can guess I have a lot of slugs etc (keep hoping for a little family of hedgehogs to move in but not sure that will happen any time soon :-)) I also tend to have a LOT of brown mouldy leaves around the base of these plants that usually come away in my hand or I pull them off like rhubarb stalks or after a couple of goes I get the scissors to them. Is this the right think to do or does pulling damage the plant? Again do you have problems keeping this plant looking good? Many thanks.
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Will be interested what those in the know respond to this Copperdog as it's something I've often forgotten to ask. I only have a few Bergenia - Bressingham White and each year in early summer I take the scissors to the brown and yellowing leaves, snip off the faded browning flower stalks and clear up the mess around them and just leave them. As I have so few, I'm thinking I ought to dig them up and place them farther apart to allow them perhaps more space to grow. I'm not sure what else to do. I ought to consult a book maybe but it would be better to hear from experienced folks on here if they have an annual routine which promotes new growth and keeps the plants healthy. They flower beautifully in the Spring but after the chop mentioned above, I ignore them all summer - and every Spring I regret it as I feel I ought to have had more growth by doing something to assist them spread.
Thanks for responding Yarrow2 - ditto to all of the above. It would be nice to know if others keep a tidier habit with theirs. Love them when they are in flower but as ashamed to say they are a little dull at all other times!
I was hoping mine would expand and multiply into a giant patch of ground cover. Didn't happen.
It is quite dry where I have them and apparently that slows them down.
Hello everyone, sorry to open this conversation again can anyone Tell me how they take their rotten leaves off the begonias. I know the worse ones will come away in you hand but do most of you pull or tug the leaves off or snip near base with scissors. Apologies if it seems a silly question.
Did you mean 'Begonias' Copperdog? The thread has been about Bergenias so not the same plant.
Hazels' advice is good, that's what I do with them - I'm afraid I don't know anything about begonias though!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I cut off the brown mouldy leaves and the flowered stems at their bases, remove the snail motels and give them a feed of tomato food.
I have taken small pieces off the edge of the clump and managed to root and transplant but never tried dividing a big clump, only because it is a nice shape and don't want to spoil it.
Hazel I like the effect of that fern, so delicate against the thuggish bergenia leaves. Can I be nosey and ask which fern it is please, so I can steal your idea.
thanks
I thought it was a Thalictrum because it looks just like mine. I was going to steal the idea.