Pruning and cutting back

Have been trying to create a floppy, country garden and bought a few perennials earlier this year - only now I dont know how to take care of them over the winter!!! What do I cut back, prune, leave alone or remove? Oh and I have lost most of the labels - not very practical!! I have coneflower (echinacea Kim Knee High)and another plant that looks just like it only its yellow I thinks its something like echinea?? 3 times of geranium - which didnt flower a lot but IO have hundreds of lovely leaves and Butterfly lavendars. I also bought campanulas which are still flowering - should I cut any of these back - should I bed them in tree bark or should I give up?? Please help. For the first time ever I am trying really hard to have a friendly warm garden, summer was great but I am really worred I will lost my 'new friends' during the winter!!
Thanks folks

 

"coneflower" - can be left, the seed heads are liked by the gold finches. Cut back the dead stems in spring.

"yellow I thinks its something like echinea??" - sounds like rudbeckia, and that too can be left as above.

"3 types of geranium" - depends what you mean by geranium, if its pelagonium then they will not overwinter, not frost hardy, and hate the wet. either lift them and put them in pots in a neglected cool but sunny room, or take cuttings.

"Butterfly lavendars" - cut back after flowering removing most of this seasons growth, but not all.

"campanulas which are still flowering" - leave em alone not certain of the variety but most are hardy. The frost will cut them back but they will come again next year.

 

as a rule of thumb you pull out bedding plants and leave the rest, assuming you don t have a heated greenhouse
for all the year round gardening, i buy a few plants every week, ok i like chaos but it helps me to have a wide range of plants to advise my customers, all my customers now have all the year round colour.. bulbs, heathers, viburnum and other evergreen shrubs

 

o sry. yes geraniums won t overwinter but are easy to keep in the house..... shake soil of roots, spray with bug gun and re pot, water minimum and take cuttings