I am not one to primp and preen in front of the mirror, but I will certainly do it for my plants this time of the year. It has undoubtedly been a long hot summer and many of our plants are looking a little ragged for it. We can do a little preening now to give some of our annuals and perennials a facelift for fall.
As temperatures return to normal your annuals and perennials will respond nicely but first, we need to get rid of the old, ragged growth. I always keep up with deadheading the spent blooms of annuals that are in containers so the plant will produce more blooms; and this time of the year many of them get cut back to encourage new, lush growth for the latter part of the season. A dose of water-soluble fertilizer will help with growth, color and additional bloom set, too. In a matter of a couple of weeks it will look like you have a whole new set of containers to enjoy through fall.
Herbaceous perennials will also respond to some late summer pruning. Leave those coming into bloom, like golden rods, aster, mums and helianthus; but go ahead and clean up the perennials that have finished blooming or those inclined to repeat bloom throughout the season. I regularly clean up perennial geraniums, salvias, eryngiums, gaillardia, Shasta daisies and others so they sporadically bloom all summer. Others simply benefit from having diseased or damaged foliage removed for aesthetics in the garden. Some I intentionally leave to go to seed for the birds, specifically the coneflower.
Take note that I am referring to annuals and perennials in the garden and not woody shrubs and trees. I do not recommend any clean-up of woodies (unless the wood is dead) at this point, it is too late in the summer season to attend to these matters. Instead, we should wait to do any of these chores until after several hard frosts and dormancy has occurred. Pruning woodies too early in the fall may result in new growth that will be killed by frost; plus, this year plants are under stress due to drought conditions so encouraging new growth will only add to already stressful situation. Traditional hedging shrubs like taxus, boxwood and hollies should be left alone for now, as well. Wait until several hard frosts occur then you can shape them up for winter.
The rush to mulch is usually something we think about in the spring of the year but consider tackling this chore now. Be sure not to pile mulch too high or directly around the base of the trunk. We want to see the natural flare of the trunk. We do not want to see what looks like a telephone pole sticking out of the ground.
Remove the suckers from the base and branches of sucker prone trees. Suckers will compete for resources from the parent tree and if these trees are under stress we certainly don’t want to add insult to injury. Suckers are unsightly but they are also competition.
And, finally, get those summer weeds under control. Controlling weeds now and preventing flowering and seed production will go far in overall weed management. Prevent late summer seeding and you prevent next year’s annual weed crop. If nothing else, deadhead anything about to set seed; pull the easy stuff after a rain; and use spot treatments of a herbicide to kill your hard to control perennial weeds. Many late summer perennial weeds are most effectively controlled during their fall growth cycle because they are trying to store energy before winter. This means they will take in the herbicide more efficiently. For continued control you can use corn gluten preemergent products to safely prevent weed seed from germinating. The corn gluten products also provide small amounts of nitrogen which will benefit the desirable plants in the garden.
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