CUTTING BACK PLANTS IN THE SPRING/SUMMER TO MAKE THEM MORE MANAGEABLE

I have some perennials that get just too big for the place I have them in the flower beds.  By the end of summer, they need to be staked, or are flopping over, or are just unmanageable!  So, to make a sad story short (pun intended), there are several plants that can, and should, if you're garden is like mine, be cut down.  This makes the plants much more manageable, more blooms, and your beds, especially if you have limited space like I do, looking better--sometimes I feel mine started to look like a jungle!  Here's a list of perennials that I cut down and when and how much to cut them down:

• LAVENDER  Cut your lavender down to about 6" every few years in early June.  Shape the plant into a mound.
• BEE BALM  Cut back in May, or when the plant is about a foot tall.  Cut back again in early June, before it gets bloom buds.
• OBEDIENT PLANT  Cut back 1/2 in May.
• SPEEDWELL  Cut back 6-12" in June.
• MONKSHOOD  Cut back 1/2 when 18" tall.
• HOLLYHOCK  Cut back in early spring, before it gets flower buds.
• CONEFLOWER  Cut back 1/2 during the first 2 weeks in June, then again in July.
• MUMS  Keep pinching them to keep them at about 6" until the 1st of July.
• IBERIS  Cut down each early spring, to about 4".

By cutting down these perennials, I have nice, bushy, not-too-tall, manageable plants, with lots of blooms, to enjoy during the summer and fall.  I also have very little, if any, staking to do.  It's a win-win situation!