Tips to Keep Late Blooming Plants Looking Their Best

Fall bloomers can get very tall and leggy. Makes sense since they have had all season to grow! Then, when they bloom, they are often top heavy and fall over. How frustrating to have waited all summer long, only to have the blooms lay face down in the dirt. To ensure your fall display is glorious and beautiful, you will either need to stake your fall bloomers, or do some pruning earlier in the season to make the plants stockier and more self-supporting. Keep in mind that if you prune your plants, you will be delaying the bloom period by a week or more.

Staking should be done in spring, before the plants even have a chance to flop. You will have the ugly stakes showing for a few weeks but it can save headaches and heartaches later in the season. There are lots of different methods and materials for staking, so do a little research on the web for this.

To encourage plants to become stockier, cut the plant by 1/3 once it has reached about 6-8 inches in height. This should cause it to send out more stems. Let it grow about a month and then cut it back by 1/3 again. Now your plant should grow into a full, stocky plant with multiple stems and multiple blooms. The flowers may be a bit later than if you hadn’t cut, but there will be more.