I love my Guara. It is still going great. This year I will cut it back soon with the hope that it doesnt reseed as madly as it did last year. I had hundreds of baby Guara. Maybe I should pot some and give them away

Linaria maybe I'll cut in back in a few days. I didn't know you were supposed to do that. How far down do you cut it? Also is the genus guara or gaura? I've seen it spelled both ways and I'm very confused lol.

I don't know what zone you are in but mine get ratty looking. They need to be cut back. But, Im not waiting until spring this time

I've tried them before but they never made it through winter. Giving it another try this year since temps everywhere seem to be up a notch. When mine were spent, I cut them to the ground and they came back quickly. They're looking great right now, but it's in the low 30s at night, so I'm cutting them down again this week. They're wonderful with roses, both in the garden and in the vase. If these make it through winter, I'm buying more. Maybe even if they don't.

My brother found a bunch of these at Lowes, all cut to the base for $1. They literally looked like pots of soil unless you looked closely, but all grew beautifully. What a bargain!

I would cut back about half of the growth soon,

one idea is that you reduce the sail effect masses of shoots can have. The other is that by taking lots or most of the seeds the plant changes its hormones and invests mor energy into roots or buds.

having said that, I garden in a very mild climate where they always survive, pruning or no pruning.

and I'm afraid that if your zone has real winter with soil frozen solid it doesn't really help.

I try to cut my back really deep in spring so they start anew. And if one sprawels too badly I cut them down as well, they usually just resprout and resume flowering.

@perennial fan: the spelling is definetely Gaura. I looked it up, it goes back to something like gauros which is Greek and means proud or magnificent. And for my German tongue Gaura is very easy to say, Guara would be quite a hassel ;-)

so enjoy the last glorious flowers, bye, Lin

I have Gaura in my zone 5 garden. The most important thing in my experience is good drainage. I sowed it one year, I bought some other years, they would always die over the winter, till I got better drainage. Now they survive and I get seedlings. I had to take out some because they were in the wrong spot, but one seedling is still going strong. In the middle of a path ;-).

Thought about your thread yesterday as I walked past my still blooming Gaura. Isn't it a wonderful plant? I managed to get three (out of six) cuttings rooted and in the ground, and I hope they survive the winter. We shall see just how far they can be pushed.

Mine are still blooming too! As I was cleaning leaves yesterday I just shook my head at them “Go to bed!!!”

This weekend I really need to get out and cut back the gaura, the salvia amd the phlox. Apparently my work isnt done yet

This is great to read as I purchased gaura seeds and will hopefully get the sod out and plant them in the Spring. It sounds like they self seed easily too which will be helpful in establishing my new garden.

My soil is well-drained, and I have tried them twice, but neither has survived the winter even though I have a couple of kinds of western dry-land Agastaches that survive. I think I am just too cold since I often get down to temperatures a bit below -20F.

Babs I have Gaura 'Summer Emotions'. It was touted to be hardier than all others. I put in 6 and strangely the one that is still going years later is in an area that developed a drainage issue and is almost soggy. The others were in a well drained position but had Juglans cinerea - Butternut trees in relatively close proximity. Some plants cannot survive the juglone at all. I blamed it for their demise.

I just added a Gaura again. I've tried it in the past and it didn't make it through the winter, but thought I'd try it one more time. I wanted it in an area with grasses, that they look so good with. I planted it at the top of a small slope and hope that will help with the drainage issue. Fingers crossed, but not counting on it.

Mine still has a few flowers on it.

It grew really well this year and was about twice as big as I was expecting.

I went out last weekend and cut mine way back. When I did I found 3 other new starts

Mine dropped hundreds of seeds last spring

I decided to stay ahead of it this year.