HERBACEOUS PLANTS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 20, 18 October 1941, Page 14

HERBACEOUS PLANTS

Why You Should “iDe-Shoot” Them Some kinds of herbaceous plants make far too many shoots —more than they can support and flower to perfection.

The plants we particularly have in mind are michaelmas daisies, phloxes, chrysanthemums, erigerons, lythrums, lychnis and rudbeekias. Examine any of these plants now,and you will find congested growth. According to the age and kind of plant there will be anywhere from 18 to 30 shoots.

The plants look happy enough, but it must he obvious to yon that before long the congestion is going to result in spindling, and that when the great strain of flowering comes, there won’t be enough food and moisture to go round.

Growth will droop during quite an ordinary spell of dry weather. Buds turn blind, there are half blooms, while those blooms that do open have washed-out colours.

That picture is true to the life of all unthinned herbaceous borders every season.

Reduce the shoots considerably, and thereby reduce the call on the food supply, space and air, and you will be gratified by the more beautiful display.

The number of shoots to leave per plant varies from five to eight, according to its age and vigour. Within those limits you can safely use your own judgment with the plants mentioned above.

To some of yon this may seem a somewhat revolutionary proposal. It looks like getting rid of a deal of real good growth. Suspend your judgment till the end of the flowering season, and we have no doubt what the verdict will be. , Thinned plants hare no shorn look, and they spread quite as much as the unthinned, but the quality of the bloom is leagues ahead. There are rules to observe. The shoots must be vigorous and as evenly spaced as possible.