If your containers are going to pot, prune away

Have you done any pruning lately? I’m not talking about overgrown trees and shrubs, I’m talking about containers. 

That’s right, you probably should be pruning your porch pots, hanging baskets and other containers, and I assure you, they’ll be all the better for it.

It feels like we’re on the home stretch for this gardening year, but we’re actually only in the middle, which means pots will need some maintenance if they are going to keep looking good.

Planting pots in an area with short summers is a catch-22. You can design them with lots of room for plants to grow, which means it will take longer for them to start looking full and lush, but they are probably looking great right about now. Or you can be part of the “cram it in” society and ensure that containers are looking good earlier in the summer, knowing full well they are probably a bit overgrown by now.

I’m a card-carrying member of the latter group, which means many of my containers are on the cusp of going fully rogue right about now and some intervention is called for.

The first thing to look for is leggy plants where flowering has started to slow. Petunias are famous for this, but Calibrochoa, Scaveola, Lobularia (Alyssum) and others may also get straggly. Cut the plants back by half or even more, or spot cut out just the unsightly parts.

Sometimes plants in containers intermingle in a way that isn’t to your liking. It’s perfectly acceptable to rearrange things and even trim out the parts of a plant that are in the way.

I like to go through pots and remove any unsightly foliage tattered by insects or wind. Remove bad looking leaves or leaves that aren’t where you want them, back to the stem.

Sometimes you find yourself with a plant that seems intent on taking over the entire pot. Sweet potato vine, I’m looking at you. Sure, there’s some fun in seeing just how big it will get by the end of the season, but if you want the rest of the plants to keep thriving, intervention is probably necessary. 

In this case just taken your pruners or a scissors and start cutting. I like to keep some branches longer and others shorter to avoid the equivalent of a bowl cut.

You might find that some container plants have just burned themselves out all together. It is possible to replace them without disturbing the rest of the pot, and many garden centers have potted zinnias, Rudbeckia or other late-summer plants available.

There’s one last crucial step to any mid-summer container maintenance — fertilizing. Time release fertilizer added when planting has probably been used up, so another dose can keep it going. A water soluble fertilizer will also jump start fresh growth on pruned plants, and in about a week to 10 days you should have containers looking fresh and full.

That’s mid-summer pruning well worth doing.