Posted by Carmen on 9/12/2001, 6:25 am
I believe that the time to cut the flower stalks depends a lot on where you live. In my Michigan garden, I like to leave things to die back naturally and then take care of cutting the dead flower stalks in the Spring. Besides, the small birds seem to enjoy the seed heads of a lot of my garden flowers (Echinacea, Liatris, Caryopteris). It is important, though, to clean-up the flower gardens a bit in the fall - remove any items that are laying directly on the ground - so insects don't have a place to over-winter. You will find that the non-woody flower stalks will simply "disappear" between now and next Spring as they decay (now would be a good time to place markers in the garden near your hostas and other plants that are mainly foliage). These plants will require very little attention next Spring. The woody plants (those with twiggy branches/stalks) are OK as is for the Winter, but you may want to remove some of the dying, dropping foliage. If you live in the southern states, where the winters are not too harsh, you may wish to cut back a lot of the dying stalks, mainly for aestetic purposes. Best of luck to you!
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