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

but not as much as the 5-ft.-tall

unpruned plants. Cutting plants back

by two-thirds may be more desirable to

further reduce height.

Gaura responds in an interesting

way to continued shearing and

shaping. A couple of shearings can

create full, deep green, 10- to 12-in.

mounds. Flowering seems to be

initiated as soon as pruning stops.

Plants sheared by half in early June,

again when in bud in mid-July, and

when in bud in mid-August, finally

flowered in early October on 18-in.

plants, elongating to 2-ft.-tall plants

with a slight lean. The problem with

this approach is that all the summer

bloom is lost. Also, the amount of

flowers seems to be reduced. The

shearing can be stopped in mid-July,

after the second pruning, for flowering

in mid- to late August on fuller, more

compact plants than those that

undertake only a single shearing. This

could be useful in preparation for a

special September event in the garden,

where smaller, fuller, fresh-flowering

specimens are in order.

Two shearings, or a single heavier

shearing, before bloom may be useful

in southern gardens, where plants can

become leggy with extended heat and

humidity. Shearing can be repeated

throughout the season whenever buds

are visible to keep plants in a vegeta-

tive state, if desired.

other maintenance Adequate

drainage is the primary requirement

of this long-flowering, heat- and

drought-tolerant perennial. Plants

have a tendency to bend over, and this

habit is even more pronounced in

overly rich or wet soil. Use neighbor-

ing perennials for support. The stout

taproot seldom needs division. Gaura

can be short-lived.

related plantS Quite a number of

new gaura selections have come on the

market in recent years, offering novel

colors and forms. Gaura lindheimeri

‘Corrie’s Gold’ is a yellow-variegated

form that opens its white flowers in

early summer; if cut back by half in

late July, it will rebloom in September.

‘Crimson Butterflies’ stays compact at

18 in. × 24 in. and boasts crimson-pink

flowers and maroon-colored new

growth. Though it needs no trimming,

occasional light pruning will keep the

richly colored new leaves coming.

‘Siskiyou Pink’ does well with close

planting or support from adjacent

perennials, and may be cut back by

half in late spring to control legginess.

Rosy Jane (‘Harrosy’) features white

blossoms with a pink picotee edge and

also stays a neat 18 in. × 24 in. Snow

Fountain (‘Walsnofou’) is a flurry of

crisp white flowers all summer and is a

compact grower. White-blooming

gauras tend to be more cold hardy than

pink-flowering ones. Sunny Butterflies

(‘Colso’) has white variegation with

pink flowers and tops out at 24 in.

Gentiana andrewsii

bottle gentian

gentianaceae

Blue to violet flowers like swollen buds that

never open; smooth, shiny leaves in pairs

1–2 ft. high; 1–1 1/2 ft. wide

Full sun–part shade

Blooms September–October

Gentiana andrewsii