I trust that the planters you put together this spring are giving you the color you had hoped for.
If you have a plant in that combination that has assumed a “take over” attitude, don’t be afraid to give it some discipline … with a pruning shears! Also, be sure to continue feeding to keep that energy and color coming.
Removing the faded flowers (dead-heading) is another way to promote more flowering and maintain the beauty of the planter. Dead-heading is more than just removing the spent petals — it means removing the stem holding the flower thereby also removing the seed pod.
Every plant’s purpose is to produce seed. For an annual flower, once that is accomplished, the plant will often quit blooming and start to decline. With modern introductions of old familiar flowers, that seed-producing element has been bred out so they just keep blooming until the end of the season.
If you have rose bushes, this is when you want to spray to prevent black spot. That fungal disease starts out as a black spot, usually on the lower leaves and then the leaf turns yellow and falls off. It quickly progresses up into the canopy of the plant and can cause almost complete defoliation, destroying the beauty of the plant and weakening it for survival through the winter.
Read the label on your fungicide spray to verify its effectiveness for black spot control.
If you have cucumber vines in your garden, you want to check for “cukes” every day or you will get monster-sized pickles happening overnight!