• slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide

Dealing with Floppy Perennials

Avoid floppy perennials and eliminate the need for staking with proper selection and care.

Start by selecting plants suited to the growing conditions. You’ll get the most beauty with the least amount of effort. Pushing plants beyond their limits of preferred sunlight, shade, moisture and drought can result in weak stems.

Avoid over fertilization, especially with high nitrogen fast release products. This promotes lush succulent growth that requires more water, is prone to flopping and more susceptible to insects and diseases.

Encourage stiffer growth and reduce or eliminate the need to stake late summer and fall blooming perennials with early season pruning.

Regular division can also encourage more compact growth on some perennials. For more details on pinching, pruning and grooming see Tracy DiSabato-Aust’s book The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques.

A bit more information: Use pinching and pruning to help lengthen bloom time.  Pinch back only a portion of your fall blooming plants like coneflowers in early summer. These will bloom a week or two later than the unpruned plants, extending the floral display.

Upcoming Live Events
& Webinars


April 3, 2024
Garden Trends 

Franklin Public Library, Franklin, WI

April 10, 2024
FREE WEBINAR

Container Gardening Throughout the Year
Register now

April 11, 2024
FREE WEBINAR

7 Steps to Managing Water Where it Falls in Your Yard
Register now

April 17, 2024
Landscaping for Birds: 
A Gardener’s Perspective

Glendale, WI 

April 18, 2024
Be a Waterwise Gardener
Golden Rondelle Theater, Racine, WI
Register now

April 20, 2024
Pruning Hydrangeas and Other Shrubs 
Pasquesi Home & Gardens, Lake Bluff, IL

April 27, 2024
Ridges & Rivers Book Festival
Viroqua, WI

April 28, 2024
Flowering Trees and Shrubs
Ebert's Greenhouse Village, Ixonia, WI

May 1, 2024
FREE WEBINAR

Ornamental Fruits and Vegetables
Register now

May 9, 2024
FREE WEBINAR

How to Plant Your Rain Garden
Register now

WATCH ON-DEMAND WEBINARS

Learn More

Book an Appearance

Learn More

Enter to Win The Birds & Blooms' Ultimate Gardening Guide !

ENTER NOW