WE HAVE JUST now passed over into mid-summer. In fact, today is day four of early, mid-summer.
With that said, we are already more than one-third of the way through summer.
The daylight hours are definitely decreasing in length and your plants do also.
A couple of weeks ago, I went into an extensive review on keeping all of your flowering plants pinched and deadheaded for optimum growth, maximum flowers and longest duration of bloom.
Today, there is even more that you can do, but it takes nerves of steel and a “tough love” approach to your annual flowers, producing sure fire results.
I have said it before, and so should you: “You have to spend flowers to make flowers.”
Today, we are going to go over the dreaded cut back.
It is only a dreaded procedure by those who cannot bring themselves to cut off their flowers on certain plants.
Its easy understand that sentiment, given how prolific and beautiful your plants are right now.
You have to spend flowers to make flowers!
But enough of the platitudes.
My nickname is the “flower guy,” and it has always been my claim to fame — I can make plants bloom like crazy and arrange flowers and displays that cannot be ignored.
So, when I saw flowers today near their turning point, an alarm went off.
This week is a critical juncture that determines how your baskets, containers, flower beds, perennials, roses and cut flowers will look and perform for the rest of the season.
First, let’s get to your fuchsias, the world’s best natural hummingbird feeder.
Fuchsias are a temperamental plant if you want them to stay in peak bloom for months to come.
The key to this is pulling off the seed pods at the base of the old, dropped down blossoms.
It also really helps to do this trick before they get big and purple.
But you must always be pinching various tips so the entire plant gets this treatment every 4 to 6 weeks.
Then as you are watering, remove old, dead and dying leaves that are beginning to look yellow and full of black spots.
Now on to all your summer annuals.
It is vital that you look for the first, original flower or flower spike, and as soon as it fades, you must cut it way back, even if there are small buds and have side branches.
I love dahlias — but they can quickly go to heck in a handbasket if you do not remove the old, spent flowers.
Fallen petals will rot all over your plant.
Old petals and blooms destroy the plant’s appearance and leaving dead flower heads on dahlias will cost you hundreds of future blooms.
Peninsula weather
Now, the dreaded cutback uses nature and our wonderful weather to create a unique situation found in few other places.
By cutting off the flowers and flower stalks and by pinching, we remove all modes of reproduction.
Cut off most, if not all, flowers on certain plants and stand back.
They will bounce back, far more spectacular then before.
And here is why you must do this task this week: The plants will first go into shock (wouldn’t you?) for a week or two (say Aug. 10), then for a week or two they will formulate new branches, stems, leaves, buds and blooms (Aug. 25).
With our gorgeous and mid early fall weather, September is a great month for growth, and these plants are extremely frustrated, not having been able to reproduce.
So with all of that new nutrient, they will grow and bloom like crazy.
Then, because all their new growth occurred while day length was diminishing and temperatures were dropping, the plants become very adjusted and acclimatized to mid-fall.
Technique
But how does one do this dreaded cut back?
I pinch the tips of my geraniums hard and trim back into the foliage line of my lobelia, nemesia and snapdragons.
I cut in half my pansies and violas.
I cut several inches off all petunia tips and pinch back hard the Dusty Miller, tipping zinnias and marigolds, removing all dead flowers and cutting off any poor-looking branches.
In whole, with any of my flowering annual and basket type plants, I remove the flower heads completely.
I keep in mind that many of the smaller leaves by the flower are not leaves at all, but rather leaflets, part of the flower head, and for this trick to work, the whole flower heads plus at least one true leaf set must be removed.
I wish I could include client testimony on how great this radical procedure works.
I understand how absolutely difficult cutting back gorgeous baskets and containers must be, as we watch dozens, if not hundreds, of perfect flowers fall to the ground only to become compost.
But remember in years past just how quickly your containers went from gorgeous August containers to September pieces of brown garbage and compost?
This dreaded cut back will extend their beauty until November, extending your summer flowers well beyond as your neighbors baskets become dull and dreary.
All because you took the plunge and, with a skillful snip of your Felcro pruners, cried “Off with their heads!”
This technique will keep your plants healthy through autumn.
For the rest of us … stay well all!
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Andrew May is a freelance writer and ornamental horticulturist who dreams of having Clallam and Jefferson counties nationally recognized as “Flower Peninsula USA.” Send him questions c/o Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362, or email news@peninsuladailynews.com (subject line: Andrew May).
