The Down and Dirty on Keeping a Perennial Bed Looking Good

There are a few tricks to keeping a perennial bed looking good. A low maintenance garden does not mean NO maintenance, but a little attention to your perennial plantings will reward you with a lush, healthy, colorful garden.

Deadheading, pinching back, cutting back, disbudding, and primping the plants encourages fullness, larger blooms, and a neat appearance. These efforts will help keep plants from reseeding all over the place, and provide a small measure of pest control.

Asters, Joe Pye Weed, herbs, daisies, black-eyed susans, penstemons, hummingbird mint, echinops and hollyhocks respond beautifully to cutting back. These plants can be cut back by a third to half mid June or by the 4th of July.* Yes, the bloom may be delayed by a couple of weeks, but the plant will increase in fullness, and you may actually discourage pests from hanging out in your garden by removing the all-you-can-eat buffet when they were passing through.

Dahlias, roses and mums are candidates for disbudding. This means removing the smaller buds on either side of the biggest bud on the stem. All the energy for the blossom is now directed to the primary bud.

Ornamental grasses come as close to being no maintenance as you can get in a plant. Cut them back just above the crown, neatly, by St. Patrick's day, March 17th. *

Deadheading, or removing spent blooms from plants, such as roses, daylilies, etc, will encourage additional blooms. Many new cultivars are considered "self cleaning," meaning the old blossoms will fall off on their own. Annuals, such as "Wave" petunias or Million Bells, can be quickly cleaned up with a strong blast of water from the hose.

Monitor plants for insect damage and attacks. An aphid infestation can be knocked down simply by spraying the troubled plants with a good strong blast of water from the garden hose. Plan B is to use an appropriate insecticidal soap, carefully following the label directions. Remove broken branches, neatly clip bent stems, remove diseased leaves, and keep the mulch topped off and looking fresh. Think regionally. Make every effort to work with your climate, region and soils instead of fighting them. Find plants that do really well in your area ñ ones that aren't fussy, needy, thirsty, or out of control. It is just as easy to plant a garden with easy going plants as it is to plant one with fuss budgets. Example: instead of hybrid tea roses, go for heirloom varieties or the newer Knock Out series.

* Dates given are for USDA Hardiness Zones 5, 6, 7, 8. Check with your local county Extension office for the correct dates for your area.