Helpful hint: Dahlias

Dahlias are at their peak now. I can't stress it enough - you MUST deadhead them to help keep them blooming. Keeping them from going to seed is quintessential but even more importantly...

...deadheading the old blooms prevents un-opened flower buds from getting any fungal infections.

With all this rain, sometimes the old flowers close up and leave wilted petals incased in the flower's sepals. This is a perfect place for moulds, and fungal spores to develop.

The smaller varieties like this one, you just pinch back with your fingers. With the dinner plate varieties, I would use a set of pruners or scissors to cut them back.

You can always easily tell which are the old flower seed head. When you pinch them, they are soft.

Enjoy endless blooms, with a good water soluble feed every two weeks: compost tea, fish emulsion or 10:52:10.

I Actually Like Aegopodium 'variegatum'

Aegopodium 'variegatum': also known as Goutweed, Bishops Weed, Variegated Ground Elder..."that ghastly weed"...well, it gets a bad rap in the horticultural world.

Here's my take:  if it's planted in the right place, it's FABULOUS.

Case in point:

•   The Right Location: between homes, with a brick wall and concrete barrier/patio walkway running 25 feet. 

Perfect situation. It's got no where else to go. It gets moderate amounts of light. Very little irrigation and maintenance. Keeps moisture away from the side of the house. Turns this difficult space into a lovely mass of colour. 

Hint: 

1. Any Aegopodium left to its own devices can become noxious, overbearing and a plant bully. Do not plant it close in proximity to any plants that are non-aggressive and or just establishing. Think LARGE scale when situating.  Use structures/hardscaping parameters that can confine its roots.

2. When the plant flowers, dead head almost immediately once the flowers start to decline. I can't stress it more. This prevents the plant from spreading via seeds. VERY crucial to do this in mid-June.  I remove them in succession.  Aegopodium flowers are fabulous pollinator blooms. Several bees, butterflies and hover flies buzz with furry, collecting pollen. We need more flowering plants like these to encourage pollinators to visit the garden.

As you can see below, there are still white flowers mixed in with a flower that has gone to seed in my hand. It takes little to no effort. They just come off with little required pulling. 3 minutes later, they were all off.

I don't compost these, they go out in the City yard waste bag.

Every plant has a purpose and a place where its best situated. As gardeners, it's our job to figure that out.