August is a great time to prune most plants in the garden. However, not everyone loves trimming, but for some it is simply vital. This is especially true of five of the plants in the flower garden.
Pruning is one of the main factors contributing to maintaining a healthy and beautiful garden. This involves selective removal of plant parts: branches, buds, wilted flowers, etc. Some of the plants should be pruned right now to increase flowering and improve the aesthetics and safety of the entire garden.
Which plants are good to prune in August?
Muskato
When growing frost-resistant geraniums, pruning should be done immediately after flowering. Pruning geraniums to ground level will encourage late flowering in the second half of summer, as well as fresh foliage.
But throughout the season, it’s important to remove wilted flowers to encourage new ones. Then, only when the last few flowers have faded, should the stem be removed. Pruning geraniums can help encourage the growth of more shoots. This can lead to a denser growth of the stalks.
Most long-blooming perennials, such as geraniums, die back in August, so cut them straight to the ground and water to encourage them to bloom and keep the plant tidy.
Good geranium care: Gardeners advise
Lavender
Hardy lavender plants are best pruned after flowering in late August. If lavender is not pruned, it can become “leggy” and show you its bare woody stems. It won’t be very pretty.
Pruning in August allows the plant to recover before winter, encourages fuller growth the following year and prevents bare stems. Before pruning, gardeners should wait until the lavender flowers turn gray and there are no bees buzzing around the stems.
Alstroemeria
Alstroemerias need very little pruning, which is best done in August. Pruning alstroemerias after flowering will encourage more growth from underground, giving you a huge second burst of blooms in the fall.
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Wisteria
Prune the wisteria after flowering, removing all thin side shoots from the main branch up to about five leaves from the main stem. This determines the size of the wisteria, keeping it from getting into gutters and windows and encouraging it to form flower buds rather than growing green.
Creeping roses
Roses are usually pruned in late summer. However, cosmetic pruning can be done at any time. Now it is a good idea to prune buds that have already dried and long branches without buds to improve ventilation and prevent the plants from exposing the stems at the base of the bush.
