Gaura, whirling butterfly

Question

My plant is in a large pot on my deck. While I was out of town, we had many hard rains, overwatering all my pots. I came home and all the lowers leaves were brown as if under watered. I shielded the plant, let it dry out, the leaves are coming back as is some of the flowers. Can I cut back the stalks to let the new growth return?

Answer 1

Cutting back the bloom stalks is how gaura is dead-headed so it is fine to trim them all the way back to the basal leaves.