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🌿 Pay Attention: Cut Back These Top 12 Perennials in June

As summer begins to take shape, your garden is likely bursting with life—but to keep it looking its best (and blooming its brightest), June is the perfect time to give some of your perennials a mid-season haircut. Cutting back certain plants not only keeps them tidy but also encourages stronger regrowth, more blooms, and better overall health.

Here are 12 perennials you should consider cutting back in June—and why it makes a difference.

✂️ Why Cut Back Perennials Mid-Season?

• Promotes bushier growth
• Extends blooming period
• Prevents legginess or flopping
• Removes spent flowers and redirects energy
• Improves air circulation and reduces disease risk

Now, let’s dive into the top 12 perennials to trim in June:

1. Catmint (Nepeta)

Why: After its first bloom, catmint can look leggy or unruly.
What to do: Shear it back by one-third to encourage a fresh flush of growth and a second round of blooms.

2. Salvia

Why: Cutting it back helps produce more vibrant flowers throughout the summer.
What to do: Cut spent flower spikes down to the basal foliage.

3. Geranium (Cranesbill)

Why: Some hardy geraniums become floppy or messy.
What to do: Shear back all the foliage and blooms to encourage compact regrowth.

4. Lupines

Why: Once blooming is done, seed pods can take over and reduce future flowering.
What to do: Cut stems down to the base to encourage a second, smaller bloom cycle.

5. Columbine (Aquilegia)

Why: After flowering, it tends to go to seed and look untidy.
What to do: Trim flower stalks down to the foliage to prevent self-seeding and stimulate a tidy mound of leaves.

6. Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla mollis)

Why: Spent flower heads can make the plant look weedy.
What to do: Cut back to the base once flowers brown to promote a fresh flush of leaves.

7. Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia)

Why: It can quickly overtake nearby plants and look ragged.
What to do: Trim aggressively to keep it contained and rejuvenated.

8. Coreopsis

Why: Regular shearing extends the blooming season.
What to do: Deadhead or cut back by a third to shape and refresh.

9. Penstemon

Why: To encourage repeat blooming and stronger stems.
What to do: Cut back spent flower stalks to basal foliage.