YORKTON - It’s amazing, isn’t it, how plants seem to have a rhythm all their own over the summer. The energetic days of spring growth evolve into the lush maturity and productivity of mid-summer, and then suddenly…almost overnight…they begin to look like late-summer-early fall plants.
Not that they still aren’t going to be beautiful for weeks yet, but they have matured and some look like they are getting “seedy”. You know the look: some are in fact going to seed, some are overgrowing their pots, some are leggy…they just have passed into a slowing- down stage and are reaching the last stretch of their summer 2025 lives.
This shift in appearance is especially noticeable in our flowering containers. On the upside, the containers are now filling out and cascading just the way we envisioned them to be back when we planted them. On the downside, all of them might not look that picture-perfect anymore.
What can we do?
Some plants might need to be trimmed. A haircut never hurt anyone! Yes, it’s hard to trim out blooms or stems that might still look perfectly okay… but doing so might give more sun and space to the remaining branches. If it will be a shock to you to get out your snips, and you just can’t bring yourself to do it, then just go easy and remove a little at a time. Your gardener’s instinct will tell you when it is time to stop.
Every container has some plants that either didn’t amount to as much as we hoped, or maybe got dwarfed by a more prolific plant in the same container. If you have to go searching to find that smaller plant, it might be time to remove it completely from the container. If it still looks healthy, you can transplant it into another container, perhaps start a brand new container of these assorted transplants. It’s not to late in the season for them to get settled in and still do well, especially since they won’t have to fight for space or sun in their new container.
We had a container of such plants that were low-achievers in the spring planting. They were small, a bit stunted, and one accidental dropping resulted in broken flowers on one plant, leaving only the low base of leaves. We planted them all together in one large container for the bee garden. And once they were planted and watered regularly, it is amazing how they perked up and are now lively and lovely members of our plant family in the garden. They just needed a second chance.
So it is with mid-summer transplantings. Some plants just need a fresh start in a new container, and while it means some mid-summer planting magic, it gives us the chance to create a new container with a new look. Keeps things interesting!
This is also a practice that we can repeat in a few weeks when fall begins to arrive. The sturdier plants, and the plants that can withstand chillier nights, can be taken out of their current pots and grouped together for new fall containers. Truly, our gardening work is never done! It ain’t over till it’s over! But that means that we can be creative all season.
Thank you to our friends at YTW for their great work. Gardeners, visit the hort society at www.yorktonhort.ca and see the events that will be coming up in September. Have a great week!
