Plant Care & Gardening - When to cut back flowers

Hi, this is Yolanda from VanveenBulbs.com, and in this section we're going to talk about when is the best time to cut back flowers. So flowers bloom at many different times of the year. You can have crocus and tulips and daffodils, and hyacinths in the spring, and you can have lilies and cala-lilies and all types of hydrangeas in the summer. And then getting into the fall months I have my acidenthera blooming and my begonias, geraniums blooming and I even have some crocosmia and daisy's still blooming. So when is the best time to cut them back? My rule of thumb is, if the flowers are still in bloom then I would leave them until the end of the bloom time. I could cut these back, but I thing they're still beautiful because they're still in bloom. And lately I'm trying to save the seeds, so I'm actually letting them go to seed, cutting the seed pods, and then cutting them down. But if you're not saving seeds, then anytime that the blooms have turned brown is the best time to cut them down. So these yellow crocosmia have pretty much are in the last of their bloom time and they've made seed pods. And I'm going to save those seed pods because we have a seed exchange at our garden club. But I'm already ready to cut the ones that have seed pods on them out. So the ones that are blooming still, I'm going to leave. But the ones with seed pods I'm going to cut down. So I'm cutting them all the way to the ground. My rule of thumb is, if there's still green on the foliage, then leave the foliage there. But it's getting to be fall and the plants, especially crocosmia will come back no matter what you do. So if it's green leave it be, if it's brown cut it out. And even if it's starting to turn brown you can still cut it out and it's the right time.