As soon as the flowering stem was about 80% finished, I prune my veronica right down to where the foliage starts. I've never grown spitica, but Royal Candles would immediately start to send up new flowers.

Both salvias and veronica/speedwell can be encouraged to produce new flowers by deadheading. Cut back the old flower stems to a point below the spent flowers and where new side growth emerges. Or you can lightly shear back the entire plant to the bulk of the foliage, as the previous poster describes.

btw, there seems to be some confusion with the plant names :-) 'Royal Candles' is a cultivar of Veronica spicata, commonly known as speedwell. Salvia is an entirely separate plant from a different botanical family.

I purchased 4 royal candle veronicas and 2 and one half are already deceased!!!!It was during the time we had all that rain in Maryland. Could too much water be the culprit?.

I have tried to get new royal candle veronicas from what is left of my plants that survived by taking cuttings dipping in root hormone and planting in a good planting mixture of pearl and peat.It looks like all 4 cuttings have started to grow roots as I can't pull the stems back out of the holes they were planted in. Wish me luck!!!

good luck! I hope it works.

I know "Royal Candles" was one of the most talked about perennials in this forum last season and I had great experiences with it but this year my many RC's have not done nearly as well....especially after the first flush of flowers ie very ratty stems and leaves. Very little is permanent in a garden, good and bad. I guess this is what makes gardening...interesting.

My RC has at least doubled in size (width) since last year and seems to be doing equally as well HOWEVER since everything was so late this year and the spring was so cold, the first blooming just finished up and the second blooming hasn't even started yet, but buds are forming.

rwl
I find it odd your plants died unless they were really water-logged for a long period of time or unless they were planted in too much shade or a combo of the two. If mine could make through last summers drought and last winters cold temps with little snow cover early in the season, there must have been something terribly wrong with your plants from the start or they simply did not like your conditions. These appear to be tough plants.

Kevin

I'm going to be contrary here.

I've not a fan of Royal Candles. I always disliked the fact that the stalk turned an ugly brown color. Half way through a bloom cycle, I'd have these pretty deep blue-violet flowers on top and an ugly brown stalk on bottom.

I now grow the Veronica 'Eveline' and I love it.

a2 - You're right about that now that I think about it. The flowers do get a bit ugly as they age, however when something is past it's prime, I simply remove it even if it isn't totally done blooming. New flowers form so quickly it doesn't really bother me.

Kevin