Pruning Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve'

Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ is sometimes called ‘the ever-lasting wallflower, and for good reason. It provides great value to the garden by flowering for up to 20 week a year. However, this comes at a cost to the plant that tends to go ‘leggy’ and burn itself out in a few years. To keep it tidy and extend its’ life it needs pruning but the standard rule of ‘cut it back when it stops flowering’ doesnt work with this one as it flowers for so long.

My method is as follows: wait till the first wave of flowers have reached the stage of just a few flowers at the end of long stalks. (in my garden this is now) At this stage - on a happy plant - you will normally see a next generation of flowers forming. At that stage, cut back the old flower stems following the stem down to a new shoot or leaf spur. This is a job that is a bit fiddly as you have to cut each stem individually but it is worth it. You may want to repeat this process at the end of September too.

Btw, the reason it keeps flowering is because it’s sterile and produces nectar but no pollen so cannot set seed. However the plant is unaware of this so keeps trying to produce seed with more flowers. It’s an example of plant breeders producing beautiful mutants! But the pollinators are happy with the nectar.