Why does my neighbor cut back her petunias and marigolds in midsummer and remove the flower buds from her chrysanthemums?
A. Cutting back flowering annuals such as petunias, coleus and marigolds in midsummer removes long, leggy stems and developing seeds and promotes flowering. Simply cut plants to about half-size with hedge shears or rose nippers, fertilize and water. They’ll look a little ragged for a while, but they’ll be much more attractive soon. Chrysanthemums are perennial plants rather than annuals, but they, too, benefit from having their stem tips — including flower buds — removed two or three times in early summer. This pinching, as it’s called, promotes branching and makes for a bushier plant with more flowers in the fall. Q. My kids and I watched a praying mantis egg mass hatch, and the hatchlings immediately started eating one another! This makes me wonder just how effective it would be to put egg cases in your garden for pest control. A. The praying mantis is a predator that consumes many prey every day. It’s not selective in what it eats, however, so it’s as likely to chow down on benefi
Related Questions
- What insect or disease would cause the flower stalks of my beautiful delphiniums to become twisted and their flower buds to curl and blacken?
- Why does my neighbor cut back her petunias and marigolds in midsummer and remove the flower buds from her chrysanthemums?
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