What to do with phlox after flowering: 5 points

Fiery fireworks, fellow flower growers!

Do you want to admire phlox in your garden and fill it with the enchanting delicate scent of a flower? Do not give up caring for the plant after flowering. Nothing complicated - but the benefits are colossal.

All summer long, lush blooming phloxes create beauty in garden plots. Gardeners tirelessly take care of them: watering, protecting from disease, weeding and feeding. Such care is needed at the end of flowering, because even without flowers, the plant will decorate the garden until late autumn.

Step 1: easy trim

Caring for faded phlox begins with pruning inflorescences that have lost their attractiveness. It is also necessary to cut out all leaves and shoots damaged by diseases and pests with shears.

Why should phlox be looked after after pruning the inflorescences?

1. After abundant flowering, the plant needs to recuperate.

2. Phloxes need to recover from their summer illnesses.

3. Plants prepare for winter by transferring nutrients to the root system.

Step 1. Watering phlox after flowering

Plants need to continue to be watered, but less and not allowing the soil substrate to dry out. Do not forget: the homeland of phlox is North America, where in the wild this flower grows in light partial shade, in the floodplains of rivers and on the edges of forests. Experienced florists create conditions similar to their natural habitat for the successful cultivation of phlox.

Note! Many gardeners are advised to use mulching to preserve soil moisture, since phlox "waterlogs" are used.

Step 2. Processing after pruning inflorescences

Immediate measures are sometimes required from phlox lovers, traces of disease or pests noticed on plants. And after pruning the inflorescences of the plant, powdery mildew is often struck, as soon as the first signs are found - "run" to dilute healing solutions.

I prefer to protect my plants preventive spraying with an ash solution (1 tablespoon per liter of water, with the addition of 10 gr. laundry soap) and regularly, at designated intervals (1-2 weeks).

On a note: Of the pests, thrips and nematodes do the greatest damage to phlox collections.

If phloxes seriously suffer from diseases and pests, then you should not tempt the garden fate of the plant with treatment with folk remedies. Do not hesitate to choose a fungicide, insecticide or acaricide for the intended purpose. "Granny's recipes" is, of course, good, comrades, but it helps only in the initial stages of adversity.

Step 3. Phlox feeding

Most phlox varieties bloom by the second half of August. During this period, a week after pruning the inflorescences, it is worth giving the last dressing of the season.

The fertilizer is used as a complex for perennial plants with a predominance of potassium and phosphorus. A plant weakened after flowering, during the autumn period, stores in the root system the necessary amount of nutrients for successful wintering.

The finishing touch is step 4. Pruning phlox before wintering

About a month before the arrival of winter cold, phloxes are trimmed, leaving hemp of 8-10 cm.

Cutting technology:

1. Use a sharp pruner to cut off the stems, and sprinkle the hemp with ash or crushed activated carbon.

2. Spray the soil around the cut bush with a fungicide.

3. Mulch the soil under the plants, this procedure will protect phloxes from frost, and will also serve as fertilizer in the spring.

Important: If you mulch with dry leaves or vegetable tops, then remember that they must be removed immediately after the snow melts, otherwise there is a risk of attracting pests.