Your perennials send a unique set of signals to gardeners during the growing season, away from the vegetation signal that gardeners are missing. The yellowing leaves on your hostas are not being prima-donna. Instead, hostas are getting ready for winter. Don't think that a brown coneflower is dead. Instead, a brown coneflower is feeding birds & their babies that are relying on the seeds.
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Check PriceTHe determining factor between a flourishing spring garden and a bunch of desiccated stumps in your yard is what you do or do not do with your gardening shears this fall season. \\"It is not about making your garden look perfect, it is about keeping your plants alive.\\"
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1. Yarrow; Prevent the Invasion Before It Starts
After the first hard frost, you should cut yarrow stems back to about 4-6 inches. If you let this plant spread by seeds, it will take over your garden and turn it into a yarrow monoculture. The good news is that you can use those dried flower heads for beautiful arrangements during the winter before you compost them.
2. Hostas: The Emergency of Mushy Leaves
After the first frost happens, hosta leaves will be mushy. At this point, cut the leaves down to the soil level. Those leaves don’t just look gross, they can actually attract diseases and kill your hosta crown during the winter. To prevent the spread of fungal issues come spring, be sure to clear the area of all leaf debris.
3. Peonies: The Botrytis Battle
To prevent botrytis blight, cut peony stems to 3 inches above the soil in late fall, but not before the leaves have naturally turned yellow. The cut stems can be burned or thrown away, just do not compost them.
4. Daylilies: Preventing the Rot
Daylily foliage should be trimmed to 6 inches above the ground. Do this after the foliage has completely turned yellow. Cutting the leaves too early steals energy the plant would have stored for next year's growth and bloom cycle. Those thick fleshy roots need every bit of stored energy to survive the winter and produce blooms.
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5. Bee Balm: A Surgical Procedure at the Ground Level
Bee balm should be cut back completely to the ground in late fall. This will help prevent overwintering of powdery mildew in old stems. As for how careful you are with the pruning, bee balm is very resilient and will come back stronger with more aggressive cutting.
6. Garden Phlox — mildew prevention
After the first killing frost, trim phlox stems to about 4 inches above soil level. This helps break the cycle of powdery mildew, which can weaken plants over several years. Removal of these old disease harbors helps improve air circulation for the new growth in spring.
7. Blanket Flower: How to Keep the Season Going
This is where it gets a little bit tricky – throughout the growing season, you will have to cut spent blooms in order to encourage the flowers to continue blooming, however, for the final flush of seedheads (the last seedheads of the season) you will want to leave these for winter bird food. In late fall cut stems back to the basal foliage, while keeping those pretty rosettes intact.
8. Columbine's Leaf Miner Solution
If the leaves of your columbine get damaged by leaf miners, cut the columbine plants back to ground level. This will break the pest's cycle and stimulate the growth of new foliage. It could even lead to new columbine growth in the fall.
9. Black-Eyed Susan: Balancing Act Of A Bird Buffet
Leave seedheads standing until late winter to provide food for goldfinches and other seed-eating birds, then cut to 6 inches in early spring. This plant can withstand winter weather and provides wildlife food.
10. Sedum: The Late Spring Cut
Please do not trim sedum in the fall as the stems and flower heads will protect the crown from drying out over the winter while also adding interest in the winter. Wait for new growth in the spring to cut the old stems back.
11. March Madness of Ornamental Grass
Most ornamental grasses should not be cut back in the fall. The dried grass offers winter habitat insulation for the crown of the plant. You can cut them back to 4-6 inches in late winter just before new growth appears.
The difference between master gardeners and casual weekend gardeners is not better tools or more costly fertilizers, it's knowing when to prune and when to just leave the plants be. Instead of going against plants natural cycles, use your knowledge on plants to work WITH the natural cycles of the plants. Remember, your plants have survived without human intervention for thousands of winters.
It's best to wait until spring to do any pruning of perennials. An untidy fall garden will allow your perennials to come back next season!
