My perennials are looking sort of leggy with minimal blooms on them now. What is the best way to make sure they are healthy for next year? Should I prune them back now? If so how much? I have pink, yellow, white, orange and bi-colored daisy like plants. I also have some salvias and bat faced culphea. (can tell I'm a newbie as I don't know the names of them all!)
Thanks in advance for any help.
Bonnie
What to do with perennials now?
Bonnie, can you post a picture?
I'll take one tomorrow.
I always wait for all my perennials to die back on their own. Then you can either leave them all winter or prune them back. Pruning them back makes your gardens look neater for the winter, however, leaving the dead plants standing can serve two purposes: birds will feed on the seeds of certain types of flowers during the winter and the dead plants serve as a marker so you know where they are when things begin to green up in the spring (keeps you from pulling newly emerging flowers as weeds).
Bonnie - You & I have a lot of plants that have been damaged by Ike, so they are looking worse than usual. I trimmed my salvia about 1/3 - I want some protection left for over the winter, just in case... You can do the same with the cuphea. Are your daisy-like flowers gazanias? http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/748/
These are the daisey like plants I have.
second one
Third one
Fourth one
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