Helenium

Please can anybody tell me if I have to cut back my Helenium?

 

I Googled;

"Helenium when to cut back" for you and found this.


http://www.french-gardens.com/plants/helenium.php.

So don't do it until the Spring.

 

Thank you very much Doghouse Riley,very kind of you

 

Yes you do. I cut mine back now, but then I like a tidy herbaceous border, even in winter and Helenium is one of those perennials that looks very shabby when it's brown and dead! You will also see new growth appearing (depending on the variety though) so I find it's a good idea to give that a chance to 'breathe'. And it's easier to inspect for slug damage.

 

I think there is a sort of North/South divide over when to cut back perennials. In the North it gets colder so many people (myself included) like to leave the foliage on over winter, to give some extra protection, and then cut it back in spring. In the soft South the feeling is probably more towards neatness and so cutting it back in autumn.

 

I half cut my herbaceous plants back, so they don't rock about in the wind or fall over, but so that there is enough left so I can see where things are next Spring.

But I would not call myself a tidy person, and obsessively tidy people would probably have a fit at this sort of only-half-tidy approach (in truth I had not considered this point until reading an article recently by Christopher Lloyd where he wrote that he abhorred partly cut-down herbaceous plants - but his garden obeyed "Peter's Law", being in the South ... although so is mine!)

 

Hi Layla. I think what you do with your hardy perennials is just up to you and how much time you have in hand.
You can cut them back now, cut them back part of the way or just leave them alone and clean up in spring.
I tend to cut them back roughly, just for tidiness and so that I can still see where the plants are and finish the job when I start my spring gardening. I would rather be out doing it in the spring sunshine than in the cold, damp we have now.
Bit of a fair weather gardener I'm afraid.

 

Kristen, I do the partly cut down method with Verbena Bonarensis...but that's the only one! The rest are either left until Spring, either because they either look good over winter (Rudbeckia, Echinacea) or because they need protection (Pentsemon).

Alice - I need to be out in the garden, regardless, providing the weather allows. Although it's a bit different in Sussex than in Perthshire!

 

Thank you all for your advice,as I live in the south,think I will cut it down as
it looks rather untidy.

 

Been busy cutting mine back for the past two weeks, as well as striving to clear the dead leaves out of the way to keep the slugs at bay (if only just a little). Some do look OK and those with attractive seed heads like the Echinacea can be left alone I guess.