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garden tip: first, make things worse

I‘M BUSY MAKING BAD SITUATIONS WORSE THESE DAYS, which is exactly what has to be done to bring any garden from now to a visually pleasing high summer and fall. It’s not unlike cleaning your closet: Things have to get pulled apart and look a lot messier before they get better. Really. The butchery around here extends beyond the huge swaths of beheaded bigroot geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum), above. Want the hit list? Feeling brave?

Some euphorbias, particularly the basic early spring yellow species called polychroma, will start to flop open and get mildewy here if they don’t get a brutal cutback, so you can see (left) what I’ve done to them (same thing I do again in earliest spring before new growth begins).

The new red-foliage polychroma cultivar, ‘Bonfire,’ seems to stand up better to summer, so I’m not chopping it down. Will I regret it? Don’t know…only my second year with the plant, so it’s all an experiment.

Which is what cutbacks are: You observe what is going on, and if it’s not looking good, you consider administering a haircut.

The pulmonarias were shorn to the ground after flowering last month, and already have a new set of showy leaves (instead of tattered, about-to-mildew old ones). They would have grown a new set right up and over the old, but I prefer to just shear them, rather than fussily deadheading each flower stem.

Perennial salvias, like the popular ‘May Night’ and the nemorosa varieties ‘Snow Hill’ and ‘Caradonna,’ can do with a good, hard cutback when they’re done blooming. A new rosettes of foliage will be emerging down below, and a lower-impact second flush of bloom will eventually be mustered.

Catmints (Nepeta) look a mess when they pass their first major bloom, so hack them back I do (again, same treatment as in earliest spring), forcing another flush of foliage and perhaps more flowers. Again, most of all what I am seeking to do is avoid having to stare at big, ugly, floppy plants long past their prime. I’d rather have a tidy, smaller mound of fresh green and a bit of a hole than a gone-by mess.

Apparently some visitors here agree, including two from mores southerly zones (John and Writermom, see their comments), who confessed to cutting down their spring-flowering Clematis recently after intense heat had fried them. Again, experiments. One, so far, reported success, even though the books won’t tell you summer Clematis butchery is on the recommended list.

With anything you are this harsh on, be sure to keep an eye on watering while it rejuvenates. And don’t panic, or at least not right away. Some plants (like my euphorbias) will sit there looking like you killed them for a week (or two or three). And then, most times, they’ll get up and growing all over again.

Given any good haircuts lately? Perhaps that stringy hanging basket of petunias?

Related posts:

  1. the best euphorbia?
  2. high on vines: intoxicating garden climbers
  3. pruning roundup: what shrubs i prune when
  4. up and over: more clematis on more shrubs
  5. my june garden chores

Comments

  1. Terry Haugen says:

    Hi I just found your site and loved the photos. Did you ever try growing the ” Happy Thoughts” Pelargonium? Not only does it have flourescent orange-red flowers but fancy green leaves with a cream center. Very stunning!

  2. margaret says:

    Welcome, Terry. Haven’t grown that one, but now that you’ve told me I will have to go find it. Hope to see you again soon.

  3. M.E. says:

    Hi Margaret,
    We’re having a terrible time with 2 ground hogs.
    They’ve mown down my flox, perennial sunflowers, sage,etc. If I cut back the damaged stems is there a chance that they might still bloom this season? I think the ground hogs have moved on to greener pastures. Do you have any suggestions about keeping them away?
    Thanks!

  4. Margaret says:

    Welcome, M.E. Here in farming country any number of neighbors is happy to get rid of them for me, as they are highly unwelcome. I have used every method…a large Havahart trap; sulphur/smoke bombs in their burrows, and the services as I say of local hunters/trappers when I cannot get the guys myself. You can read about my first woodchuck experience in this essay. Since they can dig so adeptly and climb and go just about anywhere they wish, these are the hardest pests to get rid of, but do so ASAP; do not let them get established.

    As for your eaten crops, some things will send up another shoot and some will not, and most will be delayed or prevented from blooming this year, as you suspect. So sorry.

Comment:

The Sister Project

The Confessional

Some stuff really gets A Way to Garden-ers going. Weigh in, or just lurk while everyone else shares about these hot buttons:

Compost, Compost, Compost

I am as proud of my compost heap as I am of any part of my garden. It is the archaeological record of my garden past; it is the stuff from which future gardens will arise. I read a lot about, from sources like these: Garden Organic, a 50-year-old British charity; Journey to Forever (don’t worry, not some into-the-bunker survivalist cult); and the vast Cornell Composting archive. Dig in.

Juicy Bits

375 VISITORS, 1 BIG RHODIE: spring garden open day, in a virtual visit. How it looked, and also what they all asked about

keeping deer out DEER FENCE: I tried every potion and anti-deer trick till I finally got real and fenced. Strategies for every garden situation.

secrets to great tomatoes TOMATO TIPS, seed to harvest: Dozens of tricks for a better crop.

yes, even in dry shade MY 4 TOUGHEST GROUNDCOVERS perform even in the worst spots, like dry shade. Maybe these tough perennials will serve you as well?

5 great small trees GARDEN-SIZED TREES can’t just be the right scale; they need to have multi-season interest, too, to earn a spot here. Maybe you have room for one of my 5 favorites?

10 underplanting do’s and don’ts MAKING MOSAICS—that’s what I call good underplanting of trees and shrubs with a tapestry of plants for many months of enjoyment. Here’s how I do it.

a ribbeting bullfrog whodunit LET BULLFROGS BE BYGONES? No way. Where have all my biggest frogboys gone? The latest frog mystery explained.

stars of the spring shrubbery BEYOND LILACS (and forget forsythia!), a slideshow of some of the finest spring shrubs you may not grow (yet).

speeding up the compost DRIVE BY, HIT-AND-RUN composting is my latest craze, and speeds up the decomposition process while making good mulch quickly. Here’s how.

making a 365-day garden THINK FALL (YES, FALL): Don’t get sucked in by spring-bloomers only when nursery shopping. A great garden happens 365 days a year: Shop smart to make it so.

the facts about bulbs SOMETHING UP with a flower bulb? Paltry bloom, or wondering when to feed or cut off the foliage? It’s all here.

must-read garden poem MY FAVORITE GARDEN POEM celebrates loss, one of gardening (and life’s) realities. It does it with humor: "Why Did My Plant Die?” is a must-read.

12 steps to sanity? HELP FOR GARDENERS: Hi, my name is Margaret, and yes, we operate a 12-Step program here. Welcome.

orchid rebloom made easy I REBLOOMED MY FIRST ORCHID last year (finally!) and it turns out to be pretty easy going. Here’s how.

my seed-starting 101 WHAT ABOUT SEED-STARTING in general? The A Way to Garden method.

crispy refrigerator pickles WHAT IS IT ABOUT refrigerator pickles that makes everybody so happy? Get those cukes growing now. And then some.

hail the stewartia I LIKE PLANTS THAT EARN THEIR KEEP. By that I mean they do more than a week or two of showing off; they look good in more than a single moment, or season. The small-ish to medium trees in the genus Stewartia are a good bet if that’s the kind of multi-season interest you are looking for. Sound good?

can-do pruning REPEAT AFTER ME: I can prune. I can prune. If you follow this simple method for starters, your woody plants will thank you.

the ‘other’ peonies JUNE IS PEONY TIME, the big raucous kind of peony time, but just before that another kind of peony you might want to consider adopting does its subtler, wonderful thing.

which lilac to plant? SO MANY LILACS, so little space. Browse a glossary of some of my favorites before you shop—maybe you’ll like them, too.