When it comes to flowering, bluebells are real all-time favorites: many species flower continuously from early summer to late autumn and develop dense, colorful carpets of flowers. To keep it that way, you should regularly cut down faded flowers.

Cut off faded bluebells to encourage a second bloom

Extend flowering time for perennials

Bluebells are among the perennials, which are generally defined as long-lived herbaceous plants that use their underground organs to overwinter and develop new foliage and flowers each year. This means that flower buds are constantly re-started in the current season, so that the plant can be made to flower for practically months. To encourage such steady flowering, you should always cut back anything that has faded.

Seed formation in bluebells

However, if the faded inflorescences remain on the plant and are pollinated, the plant forms seeds and essentially uses up its energy for this. On the one hand, this is at the expense of further flowering, on the other hand, you can harvest seeds in this way or leave the seed pods and wait for the bluebells to sow themselves. However, if seed formation is impeded by the continuous removal of the faded parts, the plant will continue to produce new flowers over a longer period of time.

Clean the bluebell regularly

You should also regularly clean the Campanula, as the bellflower is also called in the gardener's language. This means you carefully remove not only the withered flowers, but also

  • all criss-crossing shoots
  • weak or diseased plant parts
  • malformed plant parts
  • as well as anything that grows too much.

It doesn't hurt if you even cut the bellflower back to just above the ground. It will simply sprout again and bloom all the more magnificently.

Pruning only on perennial bluebells

But before you reach for the scissors, you better take a closer look at the variety label. Although most bluebells are perennials that can be cut back heavily, other species are only annual or biennial and would not survive such a procedure well.

tips and tricks

For a radical pruning, you can use scissors between March and around July / beginning of August, since the bluebells often sprout and bloom a second time in the same year. Otherwise, cutting off wilted flowers and trimming can be done throughout the growing season.

Category:

Herbs