In the crunch of the annual fall cleanup, remember to make time for perennial care too.
Cutting back foliage protects flowering plants from disease and provides a clean start for regrowth.
But many perennial plants are worth leaving up if they're healthy, since letting them stand for winter can increase their hardiness and benefit wildlife.
Dick Zondag, former president of Wisconsin-based J.W. Jung Seed Co., offers tips for getting perennials ready, if you choose to trim them. So grab a pruner and start cropping these 10 plants.
1. IRIS
This showy summer favorite is vulnerable to infestations of iris borers, which tunnel into the base of the rhizome to lay eggs. Trim the fan of sword-shaped leaves at an angle so they slope upward into a center peak no higher than 6 to 8 inches. Then remove any dead or dried leaf debris.
2. BEE BALM
Cutting back this plant keeps it healthy for the hummingbirds and butterflies that flock to it in midsummer. Bring it right down to the soil to discourage problems such as mildew. If plants show signs of mildew, dispose of the cuttings instead of composting them.
3. PEONY
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Sense or Nonsense? - Why some birds can taste and smell - but others can't
Does a porcelain berry taste like a blueberry to a gray catbird? Does a block of lard smell like frying bacon to a northern flicker? The short answer is no. While some avian species do have a well-adapted sense of taste or smell, they can't distinguish between flavors and odors the way humans can. They're not picking up every ingredient in the suet you put out, says José Ramírez-Garofalo, an ornithology researcher at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the director of Freshkills Biological Station in Staten Island, New York.
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