7 Ways to Revitalize Faded Summer Perennials

Are your summer perennials looking a bit faded and worn out? As summer wears on, the garden can look pretty tired. Spent flowers are still hanging on, and stems may appear a bit leggy. Pests are at their peak, and if it’s been a humid season, fungal diseases could be creeping in.

I know it’s hot out there, and it’s hard to get motivated to brave the heat. I enjoy spending summer evenings in the garden to escape the intense afternoon sun. Early mornings are also a good time to take a spin through and freshen up.

Revitalizing your faded summer perennials mid-season can significantly enhance the overall aesthetic of your garden. You can get more blooms out of them, encourage healthy new growth, and keep your landscape looking beautiful.

Here are some tasks you can do to freshen up those perennials before the season is over. 

Deadhead Spent Blooms

Deadheading is one of the easiest ways to give your plants and your garden a pick-me-up. As summer wears on, many of our beautiful blooming perennials hold onto their spent flowers. If you leave these intact, they will go to seed, and your plant will either slow down or stop blooming.

Deadheading is the process of removing spent flowers from your plants. It has more than one benefit. Of course, the most obvious benefit is that it makes things look neater. Removing those brown, shriveled flowers makes the garden look neater and well-maintained.

In addition to the aesthetic benefit, deadheading is also good for your faded summer perennials. Removing those spent flowers tells the plant to redirect that energy. It will utilize the extra energy to promote new, healthy growth and potentially produce even more flowers. 

When mid-summer comes around, I spend a little time in the garden every evening. I walk around and remove the spent blooms regularly to prevent them from building up. This keeps them flowering longer and more frequently. Win-win!

Water Deeply and Consistently

July and August are typically the hottest months of the year, and heat can be brutal on even the toughest perennials. That heat causes water to evaporate more quickly, reducing access to moisture. This stress results in reduced overall growth and fewer flowers for faded summer perennials.

The way you water makes a significant difference in how well your plants absorb that moisture. The key is to water deeply, early in the day, and on a regular schedule. If you’re consistent about this, it will result in revitalized perennials with better blooms and healthy foliage. 

Watering deeply encourages your perennials to develop deep roots. These roots then have access to more moisture, which lies deeper in the ground. If you water every day, but don’t water deeply, your plants will develop shallow roots. These will then require more frequent watering. 

Water early in the day before the air heats up. Once the heat sets in and the sun is overhead, water evaporates quickly. You’ll waste most of it and not benefit those faded summer perennials if you water too late. Not to mention it’s a waste of water and money. 

Watering in the evening can lead to fungal diseases as the moisture sits on leaves overnight. Water your plants in the morning when they have time to absorb it. This will help keep them perky throughout the day.

Do your best to water consistently. A consistent routine will help reduce stress and prevent heat shock.

Consider implementing a long-term watering solution to make this task easier. You can install drip irrigation or soaker hoses. Olla watering pots are wonderful for those larger perennials that benefit from consistent moisture.

Rejuvenate By Pruning

Many of your summer perennials start to look tired and leggy by midsummer. Plants that bloom invest a significant amount of energy in flowering. Once they finish, the remaining foliage looks a little lackluster. 

This is a great time to give these faded summer perennials a light to medium trim. Cutting them back by about 1/3 will help them reallocate their energy. It stimulates compact new growth and may even encourage a second flush of flowers later in the season. 

It’s also a great time to clean up any dead or damaged foliage and branches. These are also energy drains, and removing them will improve the overall health and vigor of your faded summer perennials.

Weed and Refresh Mulch

Weeding is far from my favorite summer garden task. In fact, it’s the thing I like least about the growing season. Those weeds seem to spring up overnight and crowd out all the plants we love and care for. Pulling them up is a time-consuming and arduous task.

While it’s not a favorite pastime, weeding is important, especially at this time of year. Weeds compete with your summer perennials for nutrients, space, and water. They will use up valuable resources, leaving less for the perennials you want.

This is one of those tasks that is nearly impossible to handle in the middle of the day. You don’t have to do it all at once, though. Try pacing yourself and taking on one space at a time. Make use of those early evening hours when the sun is lower in the sky. 

After weeding, and I can’t stress this enough, mulch your beds. This is the ideal time to lay down a layer of straw, wood chips, pine straw, or even leaf mulch. I strongly recommend mulching each bed as soon as you finish weeding it. 

Why Mulch is Important

Mulch serves three essential purposes this time of year. One, it helps hold moisture in the soil, preventing rapid evaporation. That means less frequent watering and healthier roots. 

The second function of mulch is to prevent erosion. Summer storms can come through strong, washing and blowing away your topsoil. This can expose your perennial’s roots, leaving it vulnerable to damage. A decent layer of mulch will reduce erosion and protect the roots.

Finally, mulch suppresses the weeds that you have just finished pulling out. It does this in three ways:

• Blocking the light that many weed seeds need to germinate
• Smothering any seedlings that manage to sprout
• Acting as a physical barrier, preventing airborne weed seeds from reaching the soil

Fertilize Lightly

I want to offer a word of caution here: the keyword in this task is ‘lightly’. Too much fertilizer can stress your faded summer perennials. It encourages soft new growth, which is more vulnerable to drought and disease. 

If you wait too long, you also risk stimulating new growth that won’t harden off. That growth will be more susceptible to frost damage over the winter. If you are within eight weeks of your first anticipated frost date, skip fertilizing until spring. 

If you’re in a warmer climate, it’s fine to fertilize many of your summer-blooming perennials. It may even encourage a late flush of flowers. Be aware, though, that fertilizing a plant stressed by drought or heat can burn the roots and do more harm than good. 

Choose a cool or cloudy day for fertilizing. If you can catch it after a good soaking rain, that’s even better. If not, water well before you apply a light helping of fertilizer. Then water it again afterward. 

For your flowering plants, use a low-nitrogen formula. Higher phosphorus and potassium will encourage more flowering. Organic fertilizers and compost teas are gentler on roots and soil, making them ideal.

Check and Treat for Pests and Diseases

Pests and diseases are at their peak in the summer. Fungal and bacterial diseases thrive in the warm, humid environment of the summer garden. Pests are reproducing and are most active this time of year. 

Heat and drought make your perennials more susceptible to damage. This makes those pests and diseases more damaging than at other times. Overgrowth may also reduce air circulation, creating a breeding ground for disease. 

Now is the time to inspect your plants for signs of disease or pest infestation. The earlier you catch it, the less damage they can inflict, and the faster your faded summer perennials will recover. 

Many of the other tasks on this list will also help prevent these issues. Watering early in the day helps combat fungal diseases, and mulch prevents splashback, which can also carry diseases. Pruning to increase the airflow is another way to prevent fungus from taking hold. 

Make sure to check under leaves and along the stems. These are the most common spots where pests are most likely to congregate. If you address garden pests as soon as they appear, they will have less time to cause damage. Use a strong stream of water from a hose early in the morning to knock most sap sucking pests off plants.

Neem oil is an effective follow-up for treating various pests and diseases. Make sure to dilute it correctly, though, as it can burn your leaves in the intense heat. 

Handle Crowding

Thinning out your perennials in the summer is a good way to reduce disease and boost their growth. It improves air circulation and allows sunlight to reach the growth closer to the center of the plant. It prevents overcrowding, which encourages healthy new growth and flowers.