My Little Lambs

Stachys lanata - lambs ears. These plants are very beautiful in foliage. Once they begin going to seed (the tall stem), if you don't cut them back they become very ugly and tacky. If you want more plants first year though, or collect seeds, you must let some of the stems grow on for a couple months or more for seeds to mature and either collect in a paper bag or sow freely. Once you have enough plants and/or seeds, my suggestion is to cut them back right at the point of flowering. This is the time when the least amount of lamb dust will get up your nose and make you sneeze. If you cut them way down, you will again have a new and beautiful set of ears with ample amount of water - - though these plants are very drought tolerant.

Teresa, enjoyed the write-up with your banner. Looking forward to many more banners sharing knowledge.

Nice banner, Teresa!

Fleur569 said:Teresa, enjoyed the write-up with your banner. Looking forward to many more banners sharing knowledge.

I agree.

Whenever I see Lambs Ears, I want to touch the leaves, as they're soft to the touch.

Nice Banner Teresa! Thanks for sharing and for the tips.

Thanks everyone! I'm often my own worst critique. I'm not very good at taking whole plant, or landscape type photos;

I didn't notice until the banner went up; and I had come back and edited it with the 'tips on growing' I think a couple times - - Not once did I see that hose in the photo. I would probably have cropped it another way if I had done it over, to get the hose out of the photo. But oh well.

And actually, in the photo, those stems are all beginning. An added note: Once they begin to show pink flowering (right at first), they make very nice cut flowers. (Even after, but then you have to pick out the tiny dead brown flowers.)

I had to blow it up and look again to see the hose. It's certainly no distraction. Looks fine, Teresa.

It's like . . . . . . why wasn't that hose green.

Karen, @plantmanager . . .You blew up my banner? (I'm seeing tomatoes or eggs flying at it...smash.) What the heck!!! [I'm guessing you have selected *not* to have the banner visible on the pages.

Karen, @plantmanager . . .You blew up my banner? (I'm seeing tomatoes or eggs flying at it...smash.) What the heck!!! [I'm guessing you have selected *not* to have the banner visible on the pages. [/quote]

No, I like my page smaller because my monitor is large, so when I need to see the banner better, I have to maximize the page to enlarge it.

Probably nice to have my banner *maximized*, than blown up.

plantmanager said:I had to blow it up and look again to see the hose. It's certainly no distraction. Looks fine, Teresa.

I agree. I didn't even know the hose was there, until you mentioned it Teresa. I had to go back and take another look at the banner and look for it.

TsFlowers said:My Little Lambs

Once they begin going to seed (the tall stem), if you don't cut them back they become very ugly and tacky.

I disagree. I let about 1/3 of my plants flower and I find them quite lovely, a pretty delicate fuchsia colored flower. I simply snip out 2/3 or more of the flower stalks as they start sprouting up.

I didn't get that description quite detailed, Deb (sometimes too lengthy is bad). I know what you are saying because I use those flowering stems at their first stages for cut flowers, which I mentioned in an above post. But in my opinion, at some point, there are no more pretty little flowers, and In my opinion they become tacky and the leaves more brown-green, than the fuzzy wanna-touch look. At that point, cutting them back hard can bring on a whole new flush of pretty leaves.

I even use the leaves as a border from my tussie-mussie (for better choice of words) short bouquets.

Yes, I have also found that cutting back the majority (2/3 or more) of the flowering stalks when they first sprout up results in a new flush of leaves. I also make a point of deadheading the ones left to flower when they start looking bedraggled, and then get another fresh flush of leaves. If I don't get around to that initial pruning, and let all the flower stalks stand, the leaves become noticeably sparser and not nearly as attractive. I know that many folks never let these flower, which seems a shame to me, I find the small fuchsia flowers quite charming.