What can I cut back to tidy up?

My garden is now in its third year, some of the beds are new this year. You know how it is, it's constantly evolving and developing.

Last year I grew from seed some aquilegia, I planted them out thus spring and some have flowered, others have not. The trouble is I dotted them around filling up gaps and now they are a mass of foliage. They are crowding out everything, heucheras are being smothered!

Can I cut back some of the ridiculous amount of foliage they've made?

My garden is full of cottage garden flowers, mainly perennials and some annuals. Are there other things that I can happily chop back a bit? I've done my Chelsea chopping and dead head roses etc, and cosmos.

Some examples of what I have....

Verbascum chiaxx, fox gloves, heucheras, pinks, scabious (giant and knautia) lupins potentilla (mrs wilmott etc) aquilegia, astrantia, verbena, sedum, perennial geranium, ladies mantle, hydrangeas, cosmos, sweet williams, antirrhinum. also have violas, petunias and begonias in pots.

I've trimmed back my geraniums and they are regrowing.

Very grateful for any help

 

VP, those Aquilegias which have flowered will have seeded like crazy. If you don`t thin the plants out now, next year you will be totally overrun with them.

 

VP - I agree with Dai about the aquilegias. They are pretty when in flower but a bit of a nuisance the rest of the time! I make sure I cut off the dead flowerheads before the seed ripens so I don't end up with volunteers everywhere. You can be brutal with the foliage, too. I yanked out handfuls just a week or so ago and it is already regrowing. During the flowering season, I also dig out any seedlings which turn out to have dud flowers - I don't like the muddy coloured singles - so that they don't end up taking over.

Hardy geraniums are also pretty tough and most can be thinned drastically. I'm just about to dig up a bed which has been taken over by them. I'll probably get rid of most of them and just replant a few small clumps.

 

PS If you wish to remove some of your aquilegias completely, don't bother trying to pull them up. You'll find that all you get is a handful of leaves, while the root is still in place ready to start all over again. You have to dig the roots out. I use a garden fork to prise them from the ground.

 

I'm a great one for slashing and burning as my garden is now so crowded, it's the only way to cope. I have to remove armfuls of foliage etc as the season goes on so that stuff like the dahlias get enough space to shine. This years's been so dry that most things just haven't put on much growth. My rule of thumb is that if it's crowding something more precious or attractive it's got to be dealt with. Even if a big space is left after cutting something back it soon fills up with something else.

Aquilegias - chop them down to the ground or dig out. I always have enough left no matter what I do to them. If you water well you'll get regrowth. Mine are particularly mildewy and manky in this desert-like summer.

Fox gloves- cut down to the freshest bit of the rosette at the base or just remove them. The seeds will be everywhere by now!

Heucheras - if they've developed a lank and woody stem you can cut this off, hopefully at a point where new growth looks like it might appear, water well and wait for regrowth from the root. Use the tip you cut off as cutting material, they take quite easily.

Lupins - tatty as hell now they've flowered, I remove the stalk & scatter the seeds around in the hope that Nature will save me a job next spring. There's not much foliage left on mine so it would hardly be a loss to remove it.

Scabious - I've got the tall yellow stuff. I take out the flowered stalk once the seeds have ripened. If it's shading delicate plants I shorten the foliage or thin it a bit.

Ladies mantle - chop to the ground and water to get a new set of foliage.

Pinks- if they've gone leggy they will never look good'n'perky again so you've nothing to lose by giving the chop/water/feed treatment, saving choice pieces for cuttings which take easily.

Antirrhinum- cut down to healthy looking foliage, maybe 6" high, remove all faded flower heads.

Violas - I've still got some of those indestructible small-flowered ones going strong. I haven't tried but I think they'd survive a good haircut!

Potentilla - I have a shrubby one which takes a prune anytime it gets in my way.

Hydrangeas and sedums- DON'T cut these now as they haven't done their stuff for this year yet. However, if you did it inadvertantly you would lose this years's flowers, but the plant would still survive.



Other plants I reduce/ trim:

Euphorbia - these can be cut to the ground to create space if they start getting rank.

Peony- I reduce bulk by taking out the leaflets at the tip, back to another leaf joint.

Gardener's Garters grass - can be cut to the ground and will produce fresh shoots if watered

Malva- cut to the ground

Veronicastrum/ campanula - cut down to about 1 ft after flowering, I try to make them a bit lower than neighbouring plants as their stumpy gracelessness is less obvious!

Lysimachia punctata - I cut to the ground if short of space but they won't produce fresh growth till next year.

Perennial poppies - can be cut to the ground - will produce a little new growth as well as self-seeded plants if you leave just a few seedheads to ripen.

 

My goodness.... What brilliant advice in the above posts.

Thank you SO much!

 

Good advice above...also, cut your Astrantia back once it's looking tatty and starting to yellow a bit. Most hardy geraniums will make a nice fresh crown of foliage if you cut them back now. I actually sometimes hack the Cephalaria gigantea (giant scabious) with shears instead of going for individual flower stems too...depends how many/where you have to do. Your knautia can be cut back too!
Make sure you leave some seedheads and stems of anything that still looks good though - for winter structure and to provide places for overwintering insects etc

 

Thanks ruralgardener, I will bear that in mind about winter structure and wildlife.

Another thing I've discovered is where I have big gaps of colour in the garden. I was trying to think of something I could plant that wouldn't take a lot of space in June/ July but would pop it's head up in august and give some colour. I wondered about hardy fuchsias? They should come at the right time and grow through lower foliage to provide some late summer colour. Any thoughts on that? If I go for the single blooms they should fit into s cottage garden feel shouldn't they?

 

I like hardy fuchsias. I noticed recently that even Sissinghurst relies on a few for colour in August! They're tough and like a bit of shade, so you don't have to worry about giving them the sunniest spot in the garden. They are very easy to grow from cuttings. Have friends/family got any that you like?

 

To be honest, I've got a whole fuchsia bed at the side of my house... but I'm so impatient!

The ones at the side we've built up over last year and this, so they are still relatively small.

I need to do some penstemon cuttings too as I lost a lot this winter.

So you think fuchsias could cope with a 'crowded crown' til they get bigger to get their heads up and through it in late July?

 

If you give them a good start they'll probably be fine. Just clip away anything which threatens to overwhelm them completely until they've got established.