Thu, 08 Jan 2009

Pink Skullcap
January is the time to trim your pink skullcaps. They can be really tricky to prune. Typically you should prune them after they bloom, but sometimes it is hard to tell if they are done blooming. And it is also hard to tell how to prune them. I belive that prunung off the top 2/3rds of the entire plant after each bloom cycle keeps them healthy, vigorous and beautiful. This may seem like radical surgery, but you will notice in January that new dark green growth is trying to emerge from the center of the plant, and the old growth and dead flowers need to be removed to give enough light to the new growth. If you don't trim them, the plants tend to lay flat on the ground and look very bare in the center and will only have green leaves on the tips of the branches. To prune them, I grab small groups of branches in my left hand and use my hand pruners to chop off the top 2/3rds. Then I will also remove all dead branches. Skullcaps have very brittle branches that break easily, so it is common to find broken and dead branches on them. Skullcap usually blooms in the spring and you can prune them again then. If you want the plants to get bigger you can skip the spring pruning but try not to skip the January pruning.

posted at: 17:50 | path: /colleen2008 | link for this entry

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