Early Summer Maintenance Tips

Care

Early spring-blooming evergreen plants such as Phlox, Aubretia (rock cress), Alyssum, and Iberis (perennial candytuft) can be cut back to new growth to encourage fresh new compact growth. Cutting them later removes next year’s flower buds.

All compact early bloomers such as Armeria (thrift) and Dianthus ‘Tiny Rubies’ can have the dead flowers sheared off down to the foliage.

Larger plants whose foliage becomes messy after bloom, such as oriental poppies and Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’, can be cut back to the new growth.

Deadhead German Iris. These tough, drought-tolerant plants can be divided almost anytime. After dividing, cut back foliage to one half and leave the top of the rhizome exposed to the air.

Deadhead peonies down into the foliage.

Deadhead anything that tends to self-seed as soon as flowers finish – e.g. – blue fescue grass and Cerastium (snow-in-summer). This will avoid the extra work of removing unwanted seedlings. Cerastium clumps should also be reduced by half. Dig out roots all the way around the plant to keep them from invading other plants.

To encourage re-blooming, keep dead flowers cut off repeat bloomers such as Achillea (yarrow), Salvia, Rudbeckia, Echinacea, Coreopsis, and Gaillardia.
Cut above the next bud or if there are no more buds cut the stem below surrounding foliage to avoid creating a ‘porcupine’ look of cut stems.

Lamium can be sheared back to new growth to promote a summer flush of new foliage and blooms and to reduce seeding.

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