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| I've purchased a 2 gallon ES Original and am not sure whether to prune off the old blooms. I've read the posts on this forum and found different answers. I picked through the assortment packed tightly in the store display to find a well branched plant in the back middle. So many of them had twisted stems and lacked leaves in center. Some had dried up looking stems as well as blooms with no new buds present, so I avoided those. I assume the darker parts on leaves is due to drought in the rootbound container held at the retail store. I will remove the torn leaves.
I plan to layer some of the lower branches to root. Our 1st frost is mid October and mild, rainy weather in 40s usually all winter with an annual total of 60-80 inches a year. We have occasional cold snaps with winter low of 13 degrees. Should I prune off the old blooms? side view
view of base with branching and damaged leaf
top view
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by Springwood_Gardens 6B Pittsburgh (My Page) on Thu, Jul 19, 12 at 18:42
| Cut all the blooms off now, along with accompanying leaves and the additional length of "bloom stems" (usually 2-6") down to whichever leaf node on the stems that has the next healthy set of bulging buds. A stem that produced a large bloom at its end will now produce at least two blooms of equal or smaller size by frost from where the newer buds "wye" off the stem you just cut back. All rebloomers work off the same principle. Unless you cut the old blooms off, the plant will have a hard time reblooming from the same main stems in the same season. If there are any badly crossing stems that are growing contradictory to the directions you'd like to see, cut these off in early spring when the plant is breaking dormancy. |
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| Thank you~ |
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