The Subtleties Of Summer Flower Garden Pruning. Perennial Pruning, Cosmetic Haircut. Photo

2023 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 07:13

You need to take care of your favorite flower beds throughout the active season. Depending on the selected plants and their capriciousness, the scope of work on the flower garden in the summer may include regular watering and feeding, or may be limited to only a few mandatory "hygienic" procedures. Among the latter, in addition to weeding, pruning is also included, even if it is not carried out on such a scale as in autumn and spring. Cleaning a flower garden, cutting off flowering inflorescences and undersized plants will not take much time. But they are very important not only for giving a neat look, but also for the continuous flowering and health of the flower bed.

Content:

• Planned pruning of carpet plants
• Obligatory cleaning of spring flowering perennials
• Control of ornamental foliage plants
• Cosmetic haircut on a flower garden in summer
• Summer pruning of inflorescences
• Cropping before splitting
• It is better to prune diseased plants without delay.

Planned pruning of carpet plants

All ground cover crops that fade in spring or early summer, it is better to immediately "renew" - cut, shortening the shoots, or simply mow. Favorite styloid phlox, chickweed and even soapwort during summer pruning quickly come to life, thicken, grow leaves again, and sometimes bloom again. If you refuse from the summer pruning of ground cover, instead of the usual luxurious greenery and textured spots, you will be left with semi-dry, faded "carpets" that will not decorate either flower beds or mixborders.

Obligatory cleaning of spring flowering perennials

In summer, almost all perennials, bulbous and tuberous, the period of maximum decorativeness of which occurs in spring, spoil rather than decorate the flower garden. Drying and yellowing leaves, dry peduncles, gradually bare shoots do not accidentally require such a careful selection of partners capable of masking shortcomings. Such perennial plants on a summer flower garden require mandatory cleaning, otherwise it will be impossible to keep the composition neat and elegant.

Bulbous and tuberous plants should not be touched in advance - they can only be disguised and the peduncles cut off. The greens should wither and dry naturally, allowing the bulbs to fully mature for the winter. And only dry leaves can be cut and removed from the flower garden.

For all perennial plants that lose their decorative greenery after an early start, you need to take time for cardinal pruning. Peduncles are left only for crops that want to force them to spread through the garden by self-sowing (aquilegia, forget-me-not, etc.).

But with leaves, they do it differently. In irises, the leaves are shortened to short fans. For peonies, they are removed after yellowing and drying out. In cyanosis, creepers, early geraniums, aquilegia, pruning dry, brown leaves or trimming the bushes to half height will stimulate vigorous growth and provide flower beds with beautiful green pillows.

Control of ornamental foliage plants

In many horticultural crops, the main decorative feature of which is not flowering, but leaves, the release of peduncles leads to a rapid loss of the impeccable appearance of the bushes and growth arrest. The first candidate for preventing flowering is the Byzantine Chisetz.

For him, summer control pruning is the best way to stimulate the growth of fresh ornamental leaves in the second half of the season. To make the plant look elegant and neat, fleecy, massive vertical candles of inflorescences should be immediately cut out at the base. You can cut the entire rug in excessively damp weather for renewal.

Young heycherellas, gainers, tiarellas and cuffs will not refuse from restricting flowering to accelerate growth.

Cosmetic haircut on a flower garden in summer

In order for the flower garden to always remain "in shape", impartial details do not distract from flowering and leaves, it is worth paying attention to the simplest procedures:

• pruning of dried flowers or inflorescences (and for species in which the duration of flowering directly depends on seed formation - as soon as possible removal of inflorescences that are just beginning to fade);
• removing dry and yellowing leaves;
• removal of damaged shoots.

Unlike more serious pruning, cosmetic procedures take only a few minutes and should be done regularly as soon as "details" appear that spoil the flower garden. Usually, such cosmetic care necessarily affects only the foreground and soloists. It is quite possible to refuse it for unpretentious background plants, in which dry parts are simply not striking.

Summer pruning of inflorescences

By the timely removal of wilted flowers, self-seeding can be prevented, flowering can be prolonged, repeated waves can be stimulated and even more lush greenery can be grown. This is the simplest technique that guarantees decorative flower beds until the end of the season.

In the summer, pruning must be carried out selectively, removing faded flowers and inflorescences. But for perennials, cleaning the inflorescences is not necessary one at a time. Of course, such pruning is the fastest, maximally lengthening flowering and suitable for any perennial plant.

Crops such as phlox paniculata, delphinium, daylilies or echinacea, and decorative leafy stars like cuffs and heuchera, will prefer the piece-by-piece removal of flowering shoots. But there are two more strategies for cutting wilted flowers:

1. For plants that flower quickly and at the same time, you can cut all the stems at once to stimulate new growth and possibly new flowering. Usually the inflorescences are cut just above the leaves. But if the shoots themselves are slightly shortened, new branches will begin to develop from the side buds, and perennials will only become more beautiful. The standard height for a light summer cut is to trim the inflorescence above the next bud from which new shoots can develop. Such pruning will be preferred by Iberis, Monarda, Lobelia, Stonecrop, Carnations, Knifofia, Scabiosa, Yarrow, Rudbeckia, Volzhanka.
2. Perennials, large and forming dense sod, thickets or massifs, as well as species that love haircut for thickening, can be cut lower. Perovskia, Geranium, Gaura, Amsonia, Lofant, Catnip, Gaillardia, Wormwood, Euphorbia, Coreopsis, Birchwood and Sage in summer welcome pruning at half or ⅔ of height, causing explosive growth with an eye on autumn and re-flowering.

In some autumn perennials, pruning in the first half of summer helps to delay flowering - to postpone it closer to the cold weather. Thus, cutting the stonecrop by half the stems delays its flowering by more than a month. A light haircut of chrysanthemums makes them release even more inflorescences in late autumn.

When cutting in the summer, you should always remember that some plants will decorate the garden even when dry. Dry achenes and inflorescences of mordovniks, echinacea, monarda, oregano and many other species are indispensable for the autumn and winter garden. Cultures with strong shoots and decorative fruits are left in the flower garden at will and taste.

Summer pruning is not the only method of controlling flower beds. For plants that are losing their "shape", falling apart or too spread out, unable to hold shoots and inflorescences, in summer you can use options with bundling in sheaves and garters to the supports to maintain a neat appearance. Cereals tied with soft twine, tarragon, loosestrife, perovskii look good even without a haircut.

Cropping before splitting

All herbaceous perennials that finish flowering by summer can be replanted and separated during the hottest season. Usually these procedures are postponed until August, but if watering is possible or plans for planting in partial shade and shade, you can start digging earlier. And in front of her, you need to cut the bushes correctly.

Shortening all shoots by ⅔ of the height (usually leaving stumps with several buds from 10 to 25 cm long) will facilitate the procedure. And plants that were cut in advance will take root faster.

It is better to prune diseased plants without delay

When snails, slugs, pests or traces of infection appear on flower beds, you need to be prepared for radical measures. It is better to cut off diseased and heavily damaged crops immediately, removing damaged parts and reducing the risk of mass spread of problems.

The degree of pruning is always determined by the traces of shoot damage. But phloxes, delphiniums, asters are better to cut off more than leave them with fungal diseases in a summer flower garden.