If it were me, I would break the pups off and just plant them with space inbetween. The mum has flowered and will die. If you do want more pups put them somewhere out of the way and you should get pups.

Temps here last week were in the 80s, so everything started really popping up and blooms pooping open. Very nice today too. Worked in the garden this morning wearing shorts and a tank top and my favorite flip-flops. So nice. I let My Girls out for an hour this morning to scratch around and eat bugs and grass. They have begun to lay eggs again and need the new grass to stimulate their egg production. They followed me around, clucking happily and singing their little sighing songs. So cute! The Jane Magnolia tree's flower buds have suddenly begun to swell and there are three flowers beginning to open. I sniffed one and oh, that sweet, one-of-a-kind fragrance! The honeybees and Hummingbird moths are out in droves today supping nectar from the purple Henbit flowers in the grass and visiting all the flowering shrubs. I've even seen butterflies for the past two weeks. Tulips preparing to bloom and hundreds of yellow jonquils, daffodils and purple Muscari Grape Hyacinths are blooming. Hostas and Peonies are poking their noses up through the soft earth and looking good. I could go on and on... The weather radio report yesterday predicts there will be lows in the mid-thirties in the next few days, dropping down into the low-20s on Friday night. Ain't that just DUCKY! If that happens, even if it is just for one night or one hour, I will surely bid a fond but sad farewell to most, if not all, of this year's spring flowers. .I can just kiss the Apricots goodbye...again...for a second year. It will spoil all the new tender growth on the roses and send all the little seedlings popping up in the garden to coldest Purgatory, Glad I didn't set out the Cole crops and onion sets. Unreal

Ordinary Garden lime. Stall sweet which is zeolite another limestone product. I use that on the peeps I often have in the house from incubating eggs.

mad gallica....I haven't started either. We have had snow cover in the yard all winter until 2 weeks ago and it's been too cold to work outside for long. jant....I rarely cut anything back in the fall. I think I would prefer to see everything neat going into the winter and I certainly think I would prefer to have it all done so that in the spring, everything is ready to go, but, I always think the weather will be so crazy, warming, freezing, no snow cover...I lost all my foxgloves the past three years in a row, for instance. But I suppose it had nothing to do with cutting them back. Just overly cautious I guess. Maybe I will try cutting more back next fall and see how it goes. Then I wait too long in the spring half the time and end up having to do just that, tediously try not to cut the new growth. I am always thinking about the late snow and cold that we always get. I am going to try to do it earlier this year. grow now....DEEP snow? Wow, you must have had a lot over the winter. When do you usually lose your snow cover? DtD....since you are a zone warmer than I am and two zones warmer than grownow, have you cut back because you are not expecting any further snow or late frosts? Or is that not a concern for you? I love gaura too and haven't had it winter over for me the few times I tried it. I am planning on trying it again this year. Why do you say, we are ahead of you, when you are zone 7? My problem this year, is that I have a ton to move and would like to start as early as I can, so is that when the ground is workable? Thanks .. :-) pm2