Allium Sphaerocephalon and PensteRaven

[sunglassesonthetable]

Hello

I'm definitely a learner gardener. I planted these two plants last year and they've had a lovely season. I'm definitely planting more of the Allium's this year.

But they're beginning to flop and look old and scraggly.

Should I be cutting them at the base ( the alliums ) ?

How should I be deadheading the Penstemon? Do I cut them right down when they stop flowering?

Advice gratefully received. Photos below.

I usually leave my Alliums until they are seed heads, as they are also attractive. I use single loop support stakes to hold them up.
Dead head Penstemon as the flowers fade and you’ll get more.

Should I be cutting them right back at the end of the season ? ( Both Plants )

Your alliums will die back naturally and you'll be left with a brown/dries stalk with seed head. Leave it (as pp does) or give it a gentle tug and it'll pull out the ground easily. I pull mine if start to look tatty and pull all early spring ready for the new growth.

Penstemon can be cut back for a new flush of (smaller) flowers) by just deadheading now. I then cut mine back to about 10-20cm stalks after the frosts have passed next spring, ready for next year's growth. I leave them until then for some extra frost protection.

@SweatyAndGrumpy

If you pull the alliums does that mean you are removing the actual plant?

I'm thinking about for next year.

No, the dried bit of the stem that's below ground tends to have gone soft and soggy so it just pulls off the bulb easily.

If it doesn't come loose with a gentle tug, you're pulling too early :)

@SweatyAndGrumpy so the plant remains and hopefully comes up next year ?

Exactly! No harm to the plant and the old stem is out of the way ready for the new one to shoot up.

You need to just cut back the penstemons to the next leaf buds below the dead flower heads and if you do that regularly, they will flower well into the autumn - I've had them flowering until early December one year. They were talking about how to deadhead penstemons on Gardeners' World this week - worth a quick watch. I love aliums and want to plant some up for next year - I'm in a new garden this year and missed them from my old garden.

@Beebumble2 @SweatyAndGrumpy @mimbleandlittlemy

Thank you very much. So helpful. And I'm going to look up the Gardner's World episode.

sunglassesonthetable - the other thing with penstemon is some get very big and bushy - which is lovely - but you do need to contain them in some way. I find something like this really useful because you can move them about, link them together and it holds the floppy bits up:

www.amazon.co.uk/Garden-Pride-Supports-Peonies-Hydrangea/dp/B01DPTM1LI/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=13ZHNAIRJJWOL&keywords=plant+supports&qid=1658828111&sprefix=plant%2Caps%2C66&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExVTNaT04yT0swQUg0JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDg2NDkyVVFHT0pSTzFDRzJDJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA3MzU0MjMyUzBPUEtTWFFGRkhNJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==