Featured Expert
Marry Meyer
Extension Horticulturist/Associate Proffesor
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
Chanhassen, MN

Q: Should I cut back my perennials when they are finished blooming?

A: Well, cutting back perennials is a good idea. Many times, as soon as they've finished flowering, that's the traditional time to cut back perennials. We have a lupine here that's finished flowering. You see the dead flowers at the top and the seed pods that are still on it there, and that's a good time to go in and cut that back. So, when you cut it off, because you don't want the plant to continue to make seeds and produce seeds, you cut off and put this in your compost pile. That will help the plant rejuvenate and bloom again the next year. Now, a new way, kind of a controversial way of cutting back perennials, is actually before they flower. And we've got a Rudbeckia here, and as you can see, it has not flowered yet, and if you want to control the height of Rudbeckia or any other perennial, you can actually go in and prune a lot of them before they flower. So you go in and cut off quite a bit of it. Here you can see the bud on there - it hasn't flowered yet. This is going to delay the flowering two to four weeks, but will make the plant shorter and stockier, and give you a whole different look in your garden, and a different bloom time. So that's two ways you can cut back perennials - before they flower, or the traditional way of once they finish flowering to help them rejuvenate for the next year.

images: rudbeckia flowers | rudbeckia buds | cutting before flowering

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Last updated: Tuesday, February 01, 2005