One of the most important care for many plants is pruning. This helps to maintain the health of the plants, and prevents pests or diseases (not 100% but at least it is a prevention system). Therefore, today we focus on when to prune lemon verbena and how to do it.
If you have this plant in your garden, or in a pot, and you want to know when is the best time and how you should do it, keep reading all the advice that we are going to give you.
When to prune lemon verbena
We are going to start by telling you when it is best to prune the lemon verbena. You already know this plant has a common cycle, that is, in autumn it begins to lose its leaves (especially if the weather is cold), in winter it will be bald and in spring it will begin to sprout.
It is normal in many plants. But in all that periodIs it better to prune it in autumn, winter or spring? The answer is not as easy as it seems. You will see:
You can do a drastic pruning in autumn and winter as long as the climate where you have it is not very cold or frosty. By pruning it before the cold arrives, you will ensure that it does not spend too much energy on maintaining the few leaves that it has left (and on staying active), but rather it goes into a dormant state and in spring it will have more energy to sprout. But a major frost can kill it, or make it sick.
You can wait until the end of winter (if the weather is warm) or early spring to prune it. However, you risk that when you make it, it will already have sprouted and cutting it can sometimes slow down the development of the plant.
That’s why, our recommendation is that you do it at the end of winterwhen there are no frosts (even if the weather is still cold) because that way you will avoid the bad things of one season and another.
How to prune lemon verbena
Now that you know when to prune the lemon verbena, Do you want us to give you a hand to know how to prune it? Well said and done, here are the steps that, for us, are most important.
Prepare the tools
The first, before doing anything, is none other than preparing all the tools you will need to prune your plant. Of course, these will depend on the type of plant you have. That is, if it is big or small.
In general, what you will need will be:
- Clean, sharp scissors. Be sure to sanitize them before you use them and also after you finish. This way you will not spread diseases between plants.
- Some gloves and protective glasses. To avoid damaging your hands or getting something in your eyes that can irritate them.
And nothing more. As an aromatic herb that it is, it does not grow so large as to need a larger tool, although, if it is very leafy, With only a pair of scissors you can waste a lot of time cutting.
time to cut
One of the care that you must carry out often has to do with flowering. It is important that, as the flowers wither, you cut them, to prevent them from attracting pests or diseases. However, as we are talking about pruning prior to flowering, this You should start by removing the leaves and branches that are dry and old, those that you already know are not useful for the plant to grow again there.
We also recommend that you eliminate any branches that intersect or that prevent the sun and air from penetrating well through the plant (so that it is well aerated and nourished).
Also, large leaves and branches are not aesthetically pleasing, and will detract from the beauty of the plant. So try to trim them (one and the other) so that the plant does not have a more uniform shape. In fact, once you clean the leaves and branches that are not necessary the next thing you should do is pruning it so that it maintains the shape you want it to havewhich implies cutting those branches that come out of that formation.
One piece of advice that we give you is not to do a very drastic pruning if possible. It is better to prune it twice, or three times, than in one because that way you give it time to recover, and it activates by time, wearing out much less than if you had to take care of all of it at the same time.
Finally, and depending on whether you have transplanted it or not, you can add some fertilizer or specialized product for its growth, in order to give it energy to get ahead after pruning it. But If you have changed the land, it is better not to do it because it already has the necessary nutrients to do so.
Check for pests and diseases
The time of the plague may be the ideal time to thoroughly review your plant. That’s why we told you to put on gloves. And it is that, although it is not a plant that is greatly affected by pests and diseases, There are two that need to be controlled: spider mites and root rot.
For mites, it is best to thoroughly check the branches in search of something that should not be there, as well as the leaves (if there are any) to make sure there are no undesirable bugs. If possible, have a magnifying glass handy in case of any suspicion.
In the case of root rot, the only way to know for sure is to take it out of the pot and see if the soil is too soggy. But if it is planted in the garden it is more difficult. So what you can do is insert a stick to see if it comes out very wet or not and look at the plant itself (at the base) in case you notice some rot in the stem, if it moves a lot, etc.
As you see, pruning the Luisa grass does not have any mystery. You only need to do it in time to know which branches to cut, until when and how to do it. Do you have more questions? Do not worry, leave them in comments and we will try to solve them.
