The Well-Tended Perennial Garden The Essential Guide to Planting and Pruning Techniques, Third Edition

Gaura lindheimeri
gaura
onagraceae

White or pink butterflylike flowers; narrow

green leaves, sometimes spotted red

3–5 ft. high; 3 ft. wide

Full sun

Blooms June–October

Zones 5–9

pruning Old flower petals simply

drop off the plant, leaving tiny

pinkish-red-tinted seed capsules on

the spike. New flowers continue to

open from the bottom of the flowering

spike up to the top over a long period

of time. Depending on the conditions

and the age of the plants, flowering

may continue for the entire summer

and autumn even without deadhead-

ing. And because the stems are so fine

and the seedheads so tiny, any finished

spikes usually go unnoticed among

the masses of blooming spikes. The

whole appearance of the plant is wispy.

The stems take on a nice scarlet tint

in the autumn, but turn brown in

midwinter and may fall under the

weight of heavy snow. If plants are left

up for the winter, reseeding may occur,

usually near the base of the parent

plants. Reseeding can ensure con-

stancy of this often short-lived

perennial in the garden. In some

situations plants may appear to take a

rest from flowering in midsummer;

deadhead at this time, or shear in half,

and rebloom normally will occur from

late summer into autumn.

Gaura can be cut back or sheared

before flowering for a nice effect to

reduce the height of the plants and to

produce fuller clumps with more

flowering branches. The stems are so

thin and weak on this perennial,

however, that it seems no matter at

what height the plants end up

flowering, they are still going to flop

slightly or at least lean over a bit.

Plants cut back in early June by half

when 12–15 in. tall flower 1–2 weeks

later than unpruned plants, and they

start flowering at 3 ft. and mature at 4

ft. (Flower stems on gaura elongate

through the bloom period.) Pruned

plants will still lean on their neighbors,

Gaura lindheimeri ‘Siskiyou Pink’