This time of year, its difficult to keep the garden looking fresh and well-groomed.Many plants have insect and snail damage, others have leaves who are speckled and brown and other plants have collapsed under the weight of recent heavy showers. I don't want to look at a sea of mulch but seeing a glimpse of mulch every so often, lets me t

hink I have more room than I do. I've begun trimming back anything that doesn't look a least 50% good. Any dead or brown leaves on hosta, heuchera, daylilies, trollius, and ligularia are trimmed out.The perennial geranium 'Expresso' looks spindly, so I've cut it back to the ground and mulched the area lightly. I've cut all the astrantia back and lamium has become leggy so a quick trim back to mother plant improves its appearance immensely. Pulmonaria has been sulking for weeks, all the leaves having crispy edges, and I've cut those completely back. 

The coneflowers all bloomed at once, but unfortunately, have also all faded all at once. I cut all the stems back to right above a flower bud. 

	Our spectacular weeping juniper is close to 30 feet tall. It started life as a $60 3gal plant. You could have one too!

I continue to clip back any shrubs and small trees that look ungainly or have crossing branches--weigela, euonymus, hydrangea, and forsythia. Most plants won't flower on this new wood.  Physocarpus have alot of criss-crossing branches and can be intimidating to prune, particularly the tree form. Third times a charm with one specimen in my garden. I've managed to create a Japanese maple form from this ungainly shrub by selecting a few main branches and ruthlessly cutting out all the rest. Its opened up the area underneath and allowed more light to reach a collection of hosta and ferns. This plant has the added bonus of peeling bark, richly colored leaves and flowers in spring.

Clearance...$330 each  Well under half the retail price (pump kit included)