You can pinch some, but not all perennials to delay their bloom times. I recommend you get "the Well-Tended Perennial Garden" by Tracy Disabato-Aust to research the plants of interest to you. It's a great book for anyone who enjoys perennial gardening! (Or borrow a copy from your library)

Based on my experience, I would think the trumpet lilies are going to be earlier than September - mine are done now (although everything is about 2 weeks early this year).

Also, although you want your 'big show' in September, it is nice to have something interesting all year, and it is easiest if you pick plants with the natural bloom time that you want, rather than trying to tweak...

Beth
Z5 Northern Michigan

Here is a link that might be useful: Well-Tended Perennial Garden

Thank you very much for your advice, Beth! I will indeed look into this book, and appreciate the link to 'the well-tended perennial garden'

I have certainly loaded my garden up with enough blooms to carry me through to September. And the 'pinching of buds' is merely a curious notion of mine. In fact, I did pinch off emerging buds from a delphinium and a lupin I planted earlier this season.

I did it simply because I'd just bought and planted them, and thought it better for the plant if it spent time producing roots, rather than those greenhouse-forced flowers.

So now they have reset those buds, which I expect will not fully ripen until the third week of August.

My goal is to delay my garden's full display until as late in our growing season as possible. I want it so that we're the only show in the neighbourhood. And to that end, I have plenty of monkshood and asters and mums and fall-blooming bulbs to guarantee that's the case.

The trumpet lilies I ordered are specifically touted to bloom very late, and in September, one being a 6' one called, 'dark knight'. I think trumpet lilies matched with floribundas, late-blooming hollyhocks and baby's breath make a tremendous statement.

And now I am going to look up this book, "The Well-Tended Perennial Garden". I am going to try our local used-bookstore first, then the library. But I also wonder if it's available for Kindle.

Thank you, Beth. This is my first attempt on this site, and I appreciate your response.

Lance in British Columbia Zone 4

Delphiniums will rebloom if they are cut back after the first bloom. Mine are now in full bloom with a second blooming period. I will cut them back again when they are finished and may have a smaller amount of third bloom. Hollyhocks will also often rebloom when cut back after first bloom.

I cut back several perennials through June to delay bloom.

I am surprised that most of the gardens in your area are finished blooming before fall. With choosing a variety of plants with differing blooming times (like you have done with the mums, asters, monkshood and others) and deadheading spent bloom one can have plants in bloom until a killing frost. Some gardeners plant lots of annuals to have continuous bloom.

Maybe your neighbors will appreciate your fall display and add to their gardens next year.

I have found "The Well Tended Perennial Garden" to be helpful.

One thing to remember is that if they are pinched too late in the summer they might not bloom before frost.

One year deer "pruned" my monkshood and they did not bloom until mid-October, just before frost.

Thank you very much, mnswgal!

I am taking every word to heart.

I should be more explicit and say that my neighbours certainly DO have flowers blooming now -- and will, right up til frost. . .

However, everything is yellow: coreopsis; yarrow; rudbekia; black-eyed-susan; calendula; sunflower; and masses of heliopsis, day-lilies and asiatic lilies--not to mention goldenrod.

I'm not a huge fan of hot yellow blooms.
What yellow I plant is confined to pastel shades--and nestled among purples and blues--since yellow seems to wrestle the eye away from more subtle tones, and a little yellow (IMO) is a lot.

But I am very heartened to hear you say that hollyhock will come back for a second go-round. My hollyhock is only now about 3' high, and nowhere close to setting buds.

BTW, if you can . . . do you know just how developed new seedlings of digitalis/foxglove have to be in order to survive a Zone 4 winter, and return in the Spring to bloom?
The ones now sprouting from this year's bloomer seem so teeny! I truly wonder if they will be big enough to (a) survive; and/or (b) bloom, even if they DO survive!

Thank you for all your help; and for confirming Beth's book suggestion, mnwsgl ~
Lance in Kamloops, B. C., Canada

I have gotten to dislike many of the bright golden yellow plants as they are overplanted and seem to be every where.
Rudbeckia 'Goldstrum' and 'Stella d'oro' daylily are two that come to mind. I mostly prefer a true yellow without gold/orange tones.

Soft yellows draw me and are included in many of my beds of pastel pinks, blues, purples and whites.

Still a few of the bright yellows show up in other beds with small amounts (very small amounts) of rudbeckia (double), heliopsis, and black eyed susan. Have you seen goldenrod 'Fireworks'? It's the only goldenrod that I like.

I mostly prefer a true yellow without gold/orange tones.

Digitalis is one of those plants with which I have had various results, very few self sow and bloom the next year. I am experimenting with them this year and planted more seedlings earlier as well as collecting and scattering seed here and there in beds. Deadheading the flower stalk before it sets seed will sometimes result in a plant returning and blooming a third year. Also I mulch my gardens with shredded leaves late fall to protect plants over the winter.

In terms of size of the digitalis seedlings, if they are mulched well they should survive. I start seedlings by winter sowing or summer/fall sowing and plant them in the garden beds either in the fall or early the next spring.

Your insights on digitalis are very very useful! I will certainly mulch them well, and undertake various ways of propogation, including cutting them down before they set seed.

Thank you for taking the time . . . it is really helpful.
L.

kraka, to get the best answers, you need to add your location and zone next to your moniker in your i.d. That way people can relate to your location and be able to help you better.

The Well Tended Perenn. Garden is a fab must-have book. it is the only one to have extensive notes on what plants can be cut back, when, effects, etc. I've had perenn gardens for 23 yrs and it is at the top of my list.
welcome to GW,
best,
mindy
www.cottonarbopretum.com/

Thank you very much, Mindy!
[BTW, I have tried going to www.cottonarbopretum.com and 'google' asks 'did you mean 'cottonarboetum.com'', and has no results for www.cottonarbopretum.com.]

I will get this book.
And I will now be sure to include my Zone 4 when asking questions.

I had a large perennial cutting bed 25 yrs ago, and not since. So getting back into planting is challenging my memory. I have a big, sweeping embankment at the front of our new house. Planting perennials on a steep bank is not always easy. I have to insert them vertically, like members of a choir on risers!

I want to delay my garden's major display until late in the season, while ensuring there's always something going on the whole time. Around here, everything has been given over to rudbekia goldsturm and heliopsis. My trumpet/oriental hybrids are only now setting buds.

I deadhead my floribundas diligently, and plant summer bulbs late in the Spring, so that blooms of every variety will burst open, just when trees are starting to turn colour.

Everyone here seems to time their blooms to coincide with peonies and iris, which is fine. I think it's gorgeous -- but my goal is to build up gradually to a pre-frost extravaganza.

I want my perennial garden to blow its floral fireworks in the Fall!

I appreciate your welcoming me to this cite. It is a wonderful forum. And you are very kind.

krakatowa,
typo!!
here's the link below.
kamloops?!!! WOW! you are just near one of the most beautiful places in the world, I think. we have gone frequently to banff and lake o'hara etc. and B.C. holds a very very special place in our hearts.

that's such a cool idea to plant summer bulbs in the spring.i think i'll do some of that too! but isn't it true that you can only fool them the first year, and then they would revert to their normal summer blooming? do try some ornithogolum magnum- they are huge and make quite a statement w/ their white spires. Maybe you alrdy grow them, but if not, you can see them on our Verticals in the Garden section, here:

http://www.cottonarboretum.com/garden-lessons/design/the-view/

best,
mindy

Here is a link that might be useful: cotton-arbo retum

k,
what's with the moniker? i googled it and found where it is (i only knew it was the name of a v; i didn't know where it was). Folks from Indon.? or you have some wicked eruptive nature?!intriguing for sure!
best,
mindy

Please forgive my delay in responding to your kind remarks. And now I doubt you'll be checking this again . . .
However, I just have to tell you, Mindy, that when I went to "Cotton Arbo-retum" I absolutely FELL IN LOVE!!!!

I haven't seen anything like your gardens in my life; I mean, can anything GET more beautiful and lovely???

The foliage; the blooms; the atmosphere; the thoughtful designs and incorporation of local artists . . . it goes on and on and on. And when I read all your helpful write-ups, I discover that this isn't on some acreage someplace--but actually in a suburban setting, with traffic and all the rest of it happening beyond the treed 'walls'.

Well, my homage to you is certainly being paid this very minute.
I love going over each part of this amazing website.
Thank you for sharing it with all of us, and I do hope many posters here are visiting this wonderful website and having the same experience I am.

[i don't know why I chose 'krakatowa' as a username. I think it's because no one else uses it, and it's also easy to type!]
Thank you for your kind remarks about Canada. We live in particularly arid region, where few trees cover our ancient mountains, and sagebrush is the main foliage. Thus, we residents strive to have exceedingly colourful gardens in order to counteract the desert-like surroundings. However, I must say, we all love our habitat, and enjoy the many different birds and animals other parts of our Province don't have.

I will continue to go to "Cotton Arbo-Retum". It's absolutely breathtaking.
And now I am curious about the name, and its origins.

Lance

lance, makes me so happy that you like the site!

listen, lance, i really do want to try your idea but will you answer this question from before:
"that's such a cool idea to plant summer bulbs in the spring.i think i'll do some of that too! but isn't it true that you can only fool them the first year, and then they would revert to their normal summer blooming?"
best,
mindy

p.s. i was also going to recommend for fall bloom the unusual Persicaria Lance Corporal. They are really skinny long dark pink/red pokers, but en masse, it's a beautiful sight! (see Plants- Perennials on our website. Lance Corporal has the deep purple Vs on its leaves.) and how bout autumn crocus and italian arum? sorry i don't know their hardiness zones.
pps. cotton and arbo are our 2 last names!

Hello Mindy,
I do see now your logic for 'cotton arbo-retum', and I did surmise that this was going to be the reason. It's a cool name for a very cool website.

And as to summer bulbs planted in the spring, I am really referring to the ones which we here have to retrieve and store over the winter, ie gladiolas, dahlias, tigridia, et al. So instead of planting them early in May, I've simply held off until late in May, and even saved some for the first week of June. I also hold off sprinkling the seeds of annuals like baby's breath and cornflower and poppy.

My dahlias and other summer bulb plants are only now in bud, and will likely begin blooming the week of the 23rd (August), while still others have yet to set buds. So I expect a very colourful September, knowing that the chrysanthamums and asters, freesia, and monkshood will open along with them.

And, in fact, I do have lupins blooming now, as well as larkspur and a delphinium about to bloom. It does seem to work to pinch off early buds (of some plants), because these particular plants--lupin and delphinum and larkspur--are eager to bloom, and if their buds are pinched, they just re-group and produce another set of buds much later in the season.

It seems silly to do this, I suppose. But believe me, the gardens around my neighbourhood are DONE, except for echinacia, heliopsis and rudbekia. Mine is the only one that's lively and sporting the full range of summer colour.

Thank you very much for the recommendation of Persicaria Lance Corporal. I've searched it out and my usual supplier doesn't have 'Lance Corporal', but does have quite a few other varieties. They certainly are showy! That's wonderful.

Thank you for your help and suggestions.
I think you are great.
Lance in kamloops.

ah ha, now i understand about your bulbs. funny, i ended up doing that late planting of mini glads and dahlia because of a 50% off sale at brent and becky's bulbs, so i couldn't plant them til late.Now I know to do that purposefully in the future.

And th much for the lily advice. I still have 2 pots that are to open soon, so i'm going to do an experiment for fun-remove stamens from one and not another, in same pot (same kind) and track the flowering period! (I just hate the idea of losing those rust stamens!)

In the next week, the Plants-Perennials pg. of the website will have photos to go with the existing polygonum/persicaria/falopia piece, for you to reference.

wow, delphinium!!!! you're DEFINITELY doing something right up there!
best,
mindy

Hello again, mindy ~
Yes,I do agree that losing the stamens' rusty colour made me feel very ambivalant at first (still does, truthfully) because what IS a lily without those telltale stamens! But my lilies aren't viewed closeup. They're all viewed from the road, therefore no one truly notices they've been plucked--plus, the white blooms remain pure white, and it does extend the blooming time. I just hope I'm not causing the plant some sort of distress, or trauma.

Now about the delphiniums . . .
I'm perplexed. Here, they are almost regarded as common. I've seen what can only be described as hedges of them along fences, 6 to 7' tall, and seemingly neglected because they aren't staked (which they really do need to be . . . we are at 2,000ft elevation and the winds are something else).
My guess is that we have this stony excuse for soil. It's a gravel, really. And I do know that the great enemy of delphinium is root-rot due to poor drainage. When I lived in Quebec, our soil was quite clay, and delphinium weren't as prevelent there.
But why ANY plant, let alone such a tall, classy one as delphinium would want such poor soil as we have makes me scratch my head (if indeed the ones I see aren't being augmented by compost, like I do mine).
I mean, I just had one finish blooming. Before it could even begin to form seeds, I cut it back severely, and now--only about 12 days later--it is gushing out leaves profusely as though determined to send up another spike and bloom again.

Here's a suggestion. . . dig a large hole, and at the bottom put about 5" (or more) of stones and plant a delphinium into not too dense a soil above this, so that drainage is absolutely guaranteed, and see if such an obvious effort at good drainage is rewarded. The great challenge is that they love being in moist soil, yet can't stand having 'wet feet'. I water mine every day, but never worry about drainage. What I DO have to worry about is ensuring they get fertilized frequently, because this stony 'soil' lacks nutrients.

BTW, have you ever grown a plant called 'Meadow Rue' (thalictrum delavayi)? I'm looking for a baby's breath-type perennial that makes clouds of wee blooms to go between very tall trumpet lilies and floribunda roses.

Thanks again for everything,
Your friend, Lance