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| Photo Credit: Jennifer Manning |
| Bee balm is best cut back in fall because of its tendency to mildew. |
How’s your garden looking this fall? Chances are those perennials that delighted you with their glorious color and blooms months earlier are now looking a little ragged. You may be tempted to start hacking them back – but don’t do it just yet.
It’s a good idea to leave some perennials standing until spring. Some bloomers, like coneflowers (Echinacea) and black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia), provide seeds for birds the winter through. Other perennials, like stonecrop (Sedum) and ornamental grasses, keep up an attractive show ’til spring, so why cut them down at all? Of course there aren’t any hard-and-fast rules about what to cut back in fall, but here are a few guidelines to help you get started. | Add Photo to Journal |  | | Photo Credit: Jennifer Manning | | If you leave your coneflowers alone until spring, the birds can feast on the seeds through winter. |
Some perennials, like bee balm (Monarda) and Phlox, may have already felt the sting of your pruners because they tend to get unsightly mildew in summer. There’s no problem cutting these guys back as soon as their looks start to go. Blanket flower (Gaillardia) is another good one to cut back in fall because it helps the plant become more vigorous and hardy.
When the green leaves of columbine (Aquilegia) start to die, it’s best to take off all the foliage, otherwise the plant starts to look rather unsightly. It’s a good idea to scatter the seeds from the dried flower pods in your garden or just harvest them for later. And if you’ve got daylilies (Hemerocallis), go ahead and give them a fall trim. If you don’t do it now, you’ll be wrestling with all the dead leaves mixed in with new growth come spring.
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