There are a few tricks to keeping color in your garden going throughout the summer. They take a little effort, but that’s the fun of gardening, right? Implementing any one of these tips will increase the blooms in your garden and spur you on to do more. Many perennial flowers will also rebloom if deadheaded. Exceptions are perennials that bloom on a single tall flower stalk, like astilbe or iris and perennial flowers that need a chilling period to set their flower buds. To deadhead, simply snip the entire spent flower stalk off the plant as close to the base as possible. For flowers that have multiple buds on one stalk, you can either cut down to the next unopen bud or check out tips 2 and 3. Newer gardeners have a hard time with this drastic approach, but give it a try. The plants recover quickly; early bloomers start to look bedraggled by mid-season anyway. In fact, if you have plants like perennial geraniums and Brunnera, whose foliage fades after flowering, shear the whole plant back to the new growth at the base and watch how quickly and how well they recover. This type of pruning will result in your single clump of plants turning into 3 levels, or steps, that will bloom in succession. Instead of one flash of bloom, the rear section blooms first. As it fades, the center section starts to bloom and hides the fading plants in the rear. Last to bloom is the front section, which will grow taller and hide all the fading plants behind it. To prolong their bloom, re-seed quick growing annuals about 4 weeks after the initial seeding. If you started your garden with seedlings, you can direct seed at the same time you plant the seedlings. The second batch of plants started from seed will grow and peak after the first plants or seedlings begin to fade. A balanced, all-purpose fertilizer will suffice, but if you really want to kick things into gear, try a dose of super or triple phosphate. Phosphate is especially good for root development early in the season and for boosting bud set. More isn’t better, and phosphate isn’t a substitute for a balanced fertilizer, it’s a supplement.
