Video:Plants to Prune in Fall

Transcript:Plants to Prune in Fall

My name is Charlie Siegchrist for About.com. Today we will be discussing pruning perennials in the fall.

Basically there are three approaches. Leave them altogether alone. Cut them altogether to the ground. And remove selected parts of the plant. And we'll show you each method, and why we undertake it with each plant.

Deadheading Means Pruning Dead Flowers

Here we have an early blooming chrysanthemum. As you can see, there are very few flowers left and the vast majority have gone to seed. As a consequence, we need to engage in a process called deadheading which is taking off the dead flowers. In order to foster more blooms next year, to whatever extent we can leave green foliage behind in order to photosynthesize, make sugar, build up a stronger root, we do that.

So we want to take our pruning and remove the dead stems. These are very easy to snail, so you could do it by hand. Or, alternately, you could give it a haircut. And the dead flowers are mostly removed, and we leave the good green leaves behind to get the October sunshine. And, taking off the dead material allows more light to get into what green leaves remain.

Prune the Plant to the Ground

This plant is call filipendula, or queen of the prairie. It has a big pink fuzzy bloom in late June. You can see the flower stalk got removed, so it didn't spend energy going to seed, but the foliage is pretty well knocked down and there's not going to bee a lot of activity to build up the plant for the remainder of the season. So at this point it just gets cut right to the ground and raked up and the little stubs will be there in the spring to show you where the plant is.

The Plant's Leaves Remain But Prune the Flowerheads

This plant is eupatorium, also known as Joe Pieweed. When it was in bloom a month ago, this is a big dusty purple cloud that draws butterflies. It's absolutely gorgeous.

So obviously this has gone past. To save the energy of the plant, to let it make more root growth for next year's performance, the flowerheads come off and we leave the leaves in order to photosynthesize and make sugar to go down to the roots. The time will come when it gets down to about 20 degrees all the leaves will go brown too and then it's time to take the entire plant down.

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