Picture this:
You have party at your house; it's 3 a.m. and you've just slammed the door on the
last guest. Are you the type that washes all the dishes, tidies up, and then vacuums
before going to bed, or do you simply collapse in the squalor? Of course, the
answer is probably somewhere in between, depending on how the party went and
whether you feel like holding another.
It's much the
same in the garden. Whether you cut back the perennials or not largely depends
on how you feel about the way things look, or whether it's the front garden or
the back. Cut back or don't cut back? More than likely it won't make much of a
difference. No one has ever come by my garden in summer and said, Ah, I see you
didn't cut back your veronica last fall.
There are
practical reasons for cleaning up immediately after a party and there are
practical reasons to tidy up the spent foliage of perennials in the garden, but
there will always be an opposing opinion, regardless.
In the garden,
the pros and cons usually go like this: leaving all the stalks and seed heads
on plants will provide food for birds during winter, meanwhile snow will
collect and build up on the flowerbed, protecting the tender crowns of plants
below. The mounded snow will also be aesthetically pleasing to the eye. On the
other hand, insects and disease can remain with the foliage allowing them to be
on site in spring ready to have another go at the plant.
Is the latter a
concern? I'm not convinced. If you have plants that have obviously been
afflicted with disease this year, then by all means remove and destroy the
foliage, maybe the whole plant, but accept that many fungal and viral diseases
are caused by organisms that winter over in the soil. Finding a needle in a
haystack is a breeze compared to picking fungus spores from soil, and if you
don't get every last one of the little devils, the problem will be back. The severity,
however, is more apt to depend on weather conditions, rather than your
diligence.
Remember the tar
spot fungus that was plaguing maple trees the last year or so? It caused
unsightly black spots on the leaves and we were warned to clean up every last
leaf around the garden (I composted mine regardless). There's not much sign of
tar spot this fall, but I'm sure it isn't because every leaf with a black spot
on it was conscientiously removed from the province. More likely, it was a dry
spring that disrupted the spread of spores. This is the cyclical nature of insects
and diseases.
I'm afraid I
still haven't answered the real question, so if it helps, here's what I do. On
my roses, I cut back any extra long canes that will whip about in the wind, but
leave pruning until next spring. I will also leave woody or evergreen
perennials alone, but I might, if I'm in the mood, remove the mushy dead leaves
of herbaceous plants like day lilies or hostas as these can provide hiding
places for slugs to hide out. Unlike woody perennials which sprout from their
stems, these plants sprout anew from their roots. I will wait, however, until
frost has finished them off. Ornamental grasses sprout from their roots, too,
but I wouldn't dream of cutting them back until spring. They are a highlight of
my winter garden.
If you're
still not sure about which perennials to cut back, take a clue from Mother
Nature. After the party is over, she throws a blanket of leaves over the whole
mess and doesn't worry about a thing. Don't you worry so much, either.
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