July/August 2009 - Trimming Annuals
My hanging baskets and container gardens look a bit bedraggled right now. I am fertilizing them
every 7-10 days as you recommended, but they still straggly. Can I trim them and if so how?
I’d like them to look nice for the rest of the summer. Thanks. Vivian
Sure you
can and should do some trimming on your containers this time of year. There are
three ways to get your plants back into tip-top condition:
- First you can pinch back plants like coleus, sweet potato vine, licorice plant, impatiens
and wave petunias that have become leggy. To encourage new growth, just snip off the stems any place above
a set of healthy leaves. Remember to vary your cutting lengths to maintain a
natural appearance. Don’t be afraid to cut stems back by 1/3 or more.
-Secondly, you can deadhead your plants. This involves removing spent flowers. Some
plants, like marigolds and zinnias, are easy. Just snap off the dead bloom. Others,
like dianthus, require a shearing with scissors to get rid of those brown flowers. Remember to take the
entire stem with the faded flowers of geraniums.
-The last
way to get plants back to beautiful is a technique called undercutting. This is used on million bells,
bacopa, lobelia, diascia, and petunias. If you lift up these plants, you will notice the underside can
be very dry and dead. Simply use pruners or scissors to cut off this dead tangle of stems, being careful
to leave the outer, greener stems intact. Snip a few stems and pull out the dead a little at a time.
You want to thin the plant, not leave a gaping hole. Sometimes, you can just use your fingers to
comb through the underside of overgrown plants and extract the dead branches.
I think this will help renew
your containers and baskets and you will be enjoying them well into the fall. Just don’t be afraid
of your plants. A little haircut this time of year will do them all some good. Consider
doing the job before you go away on vacation, that way your baskets will be full of fresh growth on your return.
That is if the neighbor kid actually watered them while you were gone. Happy gardening
