Plant Doctor Archive

Kniphofias

IN Issue 102 of Weekend Gardener there was a very good article on kniphofias. Unfortunately, there were no clues on maintenance and mine are an unsightly mess at the moment. After flowering, I deadheaded, but now the leaves look terribly tatty and droopy. Should they be ground-levelled now and allowed to regrow? Or is there some other way to make them look reasonably tidy? At present, the clump would cover about 1.5 square metres.

KNIPHOFIAS are a great garden plant for good texture and flowers. Unfortunately like a lot of perennials, they are tatty and unsightly sometimes. Usually the plants can be cleaned up or rejuvenated with a good trim. Leaves can be cut back and old or torn leaves pulled or cut from the plant. Don't cut too much of the green leaves from the plant as the food or nutrients from the leaves will be going back down into the root system.

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH.