Are you a fan of spring flowers? Personally, I freaking love them!
Anybody who has ever visited my mom’s backyard garden in the springtime always has something to say about the ridiculous number of spring blooms we have in there. I mean, the whole place becomes a vibrant color bomb, to say the least.
In this article, I’ll take you through how I maintain my spring flower garden and guide you on what flowers should and shouldn’t be cut back during this time.
Without wasting any more time, let’s dive straight into it, shall we?
Spring Cleanup Matters – But Timing Is Everything!
Spring is a season of growth and recovery. While many flowers grow and bloom during this period, some enter recovery mode for the warm summer that is to come.
Therefore, while admiring your work and celebrating the vibrant blooms in spring is important, preparing your beloved flowers for the next season matters equally as much.
For a spring cleanup, timing is especially important since cutting back too early can damage new growth or remove flower buds. The key here is knowing which plants need a cut and which ones prefer to be left alone, at least for now.
What To Cut Back In Spring: Encourages Stronger Growth Or Blooming!
1: Ornamental Grasses
Cut back ornamental grasses to a few inches above the base before signs of new growth begin to show. Doing so helps grasses stay neat, clean, and upright. Varieties like feather reed grass, fountain grass, switchgrass, and blue oat grass benefit from this spring cleanup.
2: Sedum (Autumn Joy, etc.)
Trim back last year’s woody sedum stalks in early spring. Do not delay this trim as it can hinder recovery timings. New sedum growth should eventually emerge from the base.
3: Salvia (Perennial Types)
For salvias, you want to remove any remaining flower stems or winter-damaged foliage around the start of spring. This will help encourage a stronger, more vigorous blooming summer flush.
Perennial varieties include like Salvia nemorosa, Salvia greggii, and Salvia guaranitica.
4: Russian Sage (Perovskia)
Cut back old Russian sage stems to 6–12″ before new leaves emerge. Since the main issue with Russian sage tends to be thin, leggy stem/foliage development, a cutback should help stimulate compact, bushy growth.
5: Bee Balm (Monarda)
When it comes to bee balms, removing old, hollow stems early in spring is a must. Doing so helps reduce the risk of disease substantially and encourages new shoot growth.
6: Asters
Cut asters back to a tidy mound before they begin to leaf out. Though this won’t exactly have the biggest impact on bloom quantity or fullness, it can help keep growth compact and flowering under control.
What To Leave Alone In Spring — Until After They Bloom
These flowers are mostly spring bloomers that either bloom on old wood or need their foliage for proper energy recovery. Pruning too early is likely to result in fewer or no flowers in these.
1: Lilacs
Lilacs mostly bloom on old wood. Thus, it’s best to wait to prune them until just after flowering, or you risk cutting off and losing this year’s buds.
2: Forsythia
Forsythia is another old-wood bloomer, meaning you want to shape it after it finishes flowering and never before.
3: Peonies
It’s best to leave peony stems intact in spring. Only remove dead or damaged parts when you do decide to prune, as cutting too low can reduce bloom performance significantly.
4: Bleeding Heart (Dicentra)
Let bleeding hearts die back naturally without interference. Pruning these perennial flowers too early can impact blooming negatively and weaken the plant considerably.
5: Iris (Bearded Types)
If pruning iris in spring, only remove mushy or dead leaves that could be weighing down the perennial. Wait to trim the stalks until after blooming.
6: Columbine (Aquilegia)
Leave the foliage of a columbine plant intact to support the root system. Prune the whole thing later in summer after flowering.
General Spring Maintenance Tips For Healthy Growth
Let’s Conclude
Whenever spring comes around, I feel sharp tingles of joy and excitement down my spine to get back into the garden and do some work. Since I’m passionate about gardening, cutting back flowers and caring for them afterwards is my favorite time of the year, apart from Christmas, ofcourse.
However, if you’re only concerned with spring flower maintenance and look at garden work as a chore (absolutely nothing wrong with that), just follow the above guidelines, and you should be good to go.
