Coreopsis Early Sunrise

Hi there,

I have a number of Coreopsis Early Sunrise plants which are looking rather worse for wear. They were new plants last summer, producing lots of flowers and nice bushy plants. However, over the winter these have become floppy and leggy. I was wondering if it was a good time to prune them now? And if so, how hard do I need to be?

Many thanks,
Rachael :-)

 

@Ockbrook_85 In my humble opinion they probably have continued to grow right through this mild winter we have experience this year so the advice below could be brought forward a little but please make sure it is when you have no frost forecast for that week as they may suffer ...maybe even irreparably bless them Perhaps as you mentioned you have a few just cut back one or two to begin with then when they are okay and recover well and quickly do the rest. And if you do get caught out with unexpected frost forecast cover them over with some protective fleece until the frost passes

http://www.perennials.com/plants/coreopsis-grandiflora-early-sunrise.html
These perennials flower best and longest if they are deadheaded: shear back the flower stems to side growths or even down to the base rosette in late July or August, and they will flower into the autumn. In late September, cut them right back again.

 

Hello BeeHappy!

Many thanks for your message and advise regarding the coreopsis (and apologies for the late reply!). As you suggested, I'm going to cut back half of the plants this weekend - it seems that we have some warmer weather on the way so perhaps a good time to do it. If the plants survive this, I'll go ahead and do the rest. I'll report back with the results.

Once again, many thanks,
Rachael