If you love puttering in the garden, trimming plants is especially rewarding.
Trimming helps keep the garden looking neat and promotes healthy growth and a long season of blooms.
In general, you should prune spring-blooming flowers after they finish blooming.
Clean up plants in late winter or early spring by removing damaged or ragged-looking stems. Cut individual stems near the ground if the plant has several stems. Otherwise, cut below the damage and just above the leaf.
Pinch or snip off the top 1 to 2 inches of fall-blooming perennials when they’re about 6 inches tall. This promotes bushy growth with lots of lateral stems.
Next, remove spent flowers regularly throughout the season. This prevents plants from producing seeds and instead will produce more blooms. These are some fairly simple and effective ways to keep your garden prepared for the upcoming seasons.
