How to care for, prune, maintain and winterize Delphinium (Aurora Blue).
After your delphinium has finished blooming cut off the flower stocks. If it blooms early enough and you do that you may get a second bloom in late summer. In the fall trim the entire plant back to the soil. I live in a zone 3b & mine survive fine with snow cover from mother nature. You could put a mulch of dead leaves over top. It is important to prune it down in the fall preferably after the frosts have mostly killed the foilage. This procedure helps to prevent delphinium worm infestations.
Hope this helps you out.
Earthlady
I have buds on my camellias and my rhododendrons. Would these be flower buds or seed buds? My plants flowered in late spring, early summer. Also, my delphiniums have flowered again for the second time this year. I cut them down after they finished flowering in the summer, but they have grown again.
With the camellias and rhododendrons, it could be seed pods or it could be buds forming for next year. They likely will not bloom again this year.
As for the delphiniums, it is not surprising that this happened. When you cut them down, you dead headed them. A plant's main goal in life is to produce seeds. When you cut them down, the plant forced itself to bloom again to try to make more seeds. This article may be of interest to you:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/fgen/deadheading-flowers.htm
I live in Wisconsin and my Delphinium flowers each year in October or November rather than the spring. Any ideas why?
These plants are not spring bloomers. They bloom in early summer and often again in late summer or early fall.
I saved the seed from my delphiniums and saved them in the refrigerator and planted some of them. I have them on a heat pad and yet none of them are coming up. I covered them with seed starting soil and covered them with a plastic lid. Do they take a long time to germinate?
Delphiniums germinate from 5 days to 5 weeks. The best soil temperature for germination is 60-68*F. The common failures in germinating delphinium's seed are these. 1) Keeping the soil too wet. 2) Sowing the seed too deeply. Seeds should only be covered with approximately 1/8" of soil. 3) Trying to germinate old seed. Delphinium seed loses its vitality after one year. 4) Freeze the seed in the freezer for two days prior to seeding.
I have this dream of having a huge bed of all different kinds of delphinium. I was told that they will become the same color over time. Do I have to segregate my delphinium?
In ''the industry'' delphinium refers to the perennial, Delphinium elatum. This plant should remain the same color for it's life span. If delphinium are pollinated, and the seed germinate, growing to bloom, eventually, yes, you will have plants of the same color. If you cut the spent bloom spikes off before seed ripen and/or fall, your plant will not change color. Larkspur, Delphinium ajacis, is a biennial, meaning that you sow seed year one. The plants bloom year two, are pollinated, form and drop seed. That plant dies, the seed germinate and bloom year three. You generally let the seed drop for the next years flowers. Unless those plants are segregated, you will end up with the same color. (Hope this didn't confuse you too much.)
Should delphinium be cut back hard in the fall or left alone? I'm never sure how to handle perennials in the fall, "to cut or not to cut, that is the question"! I hate looking at dead plant matter but don't want to have to replace the plants cause of a "neat attack" of cutting.
You can remove old growth in fall after frost or before new growth begins in spring. This is entirely up to you.
Why are some of my delphinium leaves dying and turning brown? Their stems are brown all the way to the ground. This happened after a spectacular round of blooms.
This could be caused by watering issues, to much or to little.
If the plants are to dry they may be dying down prematurely. If the ground is wet and excessive damp conditions it can cause root rot.
I would trim away the dead material and treat the plants with Neem Oil. This acts as both an insecticide and fungicide. Stressed plants can invite both.
Here are a few article for you.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/delphinium/delphinium-winter-care.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/delphinium/growing-delphinium-plants.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/pesticides/neem-oil-uses.htm