Thu, 02 Jul 2009

Pink Skullcap
Yesturday and the day before it finally rained here. I think I got about an inch total at my house. It was great to work outside in the light rain, it was 75 degrees and no sun. Nice change of pace from the 100 plus sunny heat wave we've had. On Tuesday I spent time cutting back pink skullcap that was finishing up its first bloom. It's a tricky plant to trim but it you don't prune them they can loose vigor and become woody and ugly. I take off any broken branches, then I remove the tallest three main branches in the center of the plant to let sunlight in to the center of the plant. Then I cut back the bottom branches that lay on the ground about 2/3. Then I use hedge clippers to shear the rest of the plant to remove the dead flowers and seed heads. It will look kind of strange at first but it will grow back beautifully. If you don't have the patience for all of that I know other gardeners that cut the plants back by 1/3 to 1/2. I think this makes the plant look too ugly in the meantime so I prefer the method illustrated above. It is important to do this kind of trimming again after the plants bloom in the fall as well. This will make the plants grow back more lush and will extend the life of the plants.

posted at: 14:00 | path: /colleen0605 | link for this entry

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