Reviving those early flowering perennials

Several weeks ago before I went away for two weeks in late June,  I cut back various Geraniums and Alchemilla Mollis, which now have really fresh foliage, and some already back in flower. But this morning, taking a short break from the drawing board, I cut down 2 more of my earlier flowering plants. Knautia Macedonica and also one I have not grown before,.....Penstemon Digitalis Husker's Red. Other varieties of Penstemon of course are typically July/August flowering plants, but this particular one flowers really early, which is a bonus in late May/June.

Foliage in May in my own garden

Internet photo showing flowers

Not a red flower, but beautiful beetroot colours stems and foliage,  with the palest of pink flowers. 






I rarely use plants in a client's garden that I have not personally grown at home for at least a couple of seasons. Since we did a bit of an overhall on our garden last autumn, I had he chance to  try out a few new plants, this being one of them. Once the flowers had faded, I cut off the foliage about half way down, to a leaf node, to see whether it might throw out some smaller flower buds, but it didn't. However, I noticed a load of new fresh growth at the base this morning, so have  now cut back down to ground level. (photo below).  Will it flower again? I am not sure, but I know that I will at least get a repeat of the beautiful fresh foliage to join in with the Sedum planted next to it.  I will let you  know if it does flower a second time.

Basal foliage of Penstemon Husker's Red cut back this morning.

Back to cutting down Knautia. 

Knautia is a fabulous plant for early colour and if you keep deadheading to the next leaf node (joint), they will continue to flower for several weeks.

However, they do suffer with mildew, particularly  if the weather is dry. This year has certainly been a challenge!

I have however been watering this past couple of weeks since I came back from holiday, and this morning notice a fair amount of new basal foliage on the Knautia. So, I have now cut down everything. (see below).  I know that the foliage will now grow back  AND I will get more flowers over the coming weeks. Top plant if you can just bare with the gap it leaves in border in August. Give it a good drink.

Knautia cut down this morning. It will be back!