Perennials: Summer

There are many different ways to stake a plant. You can lasso the entire plant and tie it to a bamboo, wood, or metal stake. You can stick several branched twigs in the ground, and hope they’ll snag any flopping stems. Perhaps the easiest way to prop up plants is to use special wire cages (or even tomato cages) that have wire legs you press into the soil. Though they may look awkward at first, the plants’ foliage will quickly surround and camouflage the cages.

Tall plants growing on their own (with no surrounding plants to support them), plants in less than adequate sunshine, and plants exposed to strong winds are all at the highest risk for flopping over. But even under ideal conditions, weak-stemmed plants like scabiosa (pincushion flower) often keel over. Once they do flop over, the stems will try to right themselves, and you’ll end up with wavy stems that are impossible to arrange in a vase!

Cutting Back
Some flowers, such as bleeding heart, put on an early show, then seem to disappear. Others, such as iris, appear to die back after flowering, leaving browned foliage. (The plant probably isn’t dead, it’s just entering a dormant phase.) Once foliage is completely brown and dried up, it’s safe to prune it away. Never prune away foliage that still has some green or moist areas, because the plant isn’t finished pulling the nutrients out of the leaves and transporting them back to the roots.

Watering
Depending on your climate, local weather conditions, your soil type, and the types of perennials you’re growing, you may need to apply supplemental water all summer long. Well-established, well-adapted and properly-mulched  plants growing in rich soils will need less frequent watering than marginal plants growing on sandy soils. Since watering can be time consuming -- and expensive -- this is a good reminder to try to improve soils and choose appropriate plants so you’ll need to supply as little extra water as possible.

Fertilizing
Though many gardeners apply fertilizer several times throughout the growing season, as we said earlier, this may not be necessary if you’ve amended your soil in the spring. However, if plants aren't thriving, their foliage begins to pale, or your soil test indicated a significant nutrient deficiency, then an early to mid-summer application of fertilizer may be appropriate. The fastest way to get nutrients into a plant is to apply a foliar fertilizer -- that is, to spray the fertilizer onto the plants’ leaves. Most soluble fertilizers --– those that you mix with water -- can be applied to leaves. Follow label directions carefully, and avoid spraying during the hottest part of the day.

In cold winter regions, stop fertilizing by mid summer. If you fertilize into late summer and fall, the plants may not receive the proper triggers to stop growing and enter dormancy, and the new growth will be damaged by frost. This can weaken and even kill an otherwise healthy plant.