A Little Houskeeping Goes a Long Way

Deadheading a Hydrangea Shrub with Pruners.

Everyone, including plants, needs a little spiffing up from time to time. In addition to basic light, water, and nutrition, a few snips of the pruners is all it takes to keep annuals and tropicals attractive and productive. Removing spent flowers, severely blemished leaves, and damaged shoots will instantly give plants a healthier appearance. Because it is a plant's mission in life to set seed and reproduce, deadheading most plants will also encourage mor blooms. With true annuals, deadheading is imperative. If you let the set seed, they are done for. The good news: many of the plants we call annuals are not true annuals. They are tropicals that can not survice cold winters, and they keep right on trucking for the summer whether you remove the spent flowers or not.

Although it is not necessary, pinching plants with branching habits like coleus, lantana, castor bean or tomatoes will encourage bushier, fuller growth. When you remove a tip of a stem it triggers side shoots to start sprouting. This technique will reduce the plant's overall size, keeping it more compact, but with the payoff of a lush appearance. Many times pinching can be handy when you are trying to keep enthusiastic growers from overpowering a planting and its bedfellows. Once you get the hang of it, you will be amazed at how easy it is to manipulate a plant's growth and keep it in scale with smaller or slower-growing neighbors. All it takers is a simple snip of the stem.

Perennials, The Core Crew

Mixed Border of Perennials

Along with trees and shrubs, perennials are part of the core crew of reliable plants for the ever growing garden. Perennials are great because they come back year after year, but some are more trouble than they are worth--with brief showmanship, high care requirements, or lots of pest and disease issues.

The best perennials have a long season of bloom, great foliage, few pests and diseases and are fairly self-sustaining. The good news is that lots of plants offer these attributes. As with all things gardening, however, choices are largely regionally dependent. What works best in Georgia, Unites States will not always be the right choice for gardeners in Alberta, Canada, and vice versa. Looking at a plant's hardiness zone range gives us a good jump-off point.

Of course, light exposure is another important consideration. Most mixed borders, depending on the size of the trees and shrubs, have both sunny and shady spots. That mix, of sun and shade, is ideal for it gives us lots of plants to choose from. Keep in mind: full sun is considered six hours of direct sunlight. When it comes to perennials, we can often get away with a little light or partial shade. Afternoon sun is quite strong, however, so three to four hours of afternoon sun may give full-sun plants a sufficient "tan". Conversely, shade plants can handle--and often welcome--morning sun, but afternoon sun is a big NO. With that in mind, have fun exploring your options!