Fall Cleanup of Perennial Flowers

Oct 19th, 2009 by tommy

As winter draws near, your perennial flower beds are probably looking less than terrific to say the least. Perhaps you’ve had a frost already in your area and the plants are looking brown and quite ugly.

Prior to the cold months of winter, it’s a good idea to assess your perennial flowers. Clearing out the clutter from the plants will allow them to emerge unobstructed in the spring and will help them receive the moisture and sunlight they need after a long winter.

The first thing you can do with your herbaceous perennials (those that die back to the ground each year) is to cut off all of the dead material. To avoid damage to the plant, however, it is always best to make sure the plant has completely “died back”. You can check this by observing the stems all the way to the soil surface. If they are still green, don’t cut. Otherwise, take your favorite gardening clippers and begin cutting the dead material back to within a couple of inches of the ground. If you cut too low, you risk damaging the underground portions of your perennial flowers.

One word of caution for those living in snow prone areas, many of your plants may not die completely back before the snow covers them. This is okay. Just leave them and perform your cleaning maintenance in the spring after the snow has melted. This is generally the case where I live in the Cache Valley portion of Idaho. We frequently have winters that leave a foot or two of snow covering the ground until spring. My wife actually prefers to do the perennial flower cleanup in the spring. Your efforts in your garden should be dictated by your winter climate.

Good luck with your perennials and, if you enjoy this blog, please consider subscribing to the RSS feed using the orange button above. You can also follow me on Twitter at @gardeningtoday.

Happy Gardening!