Van Dycks

It seems like gardeners in spring are so delighted to see anything green pushing up out of the soil that they will rejoice even if it turns out to be a weed. That thrill wears off and it's time for the next one - real plants and flowers and the excitement of the spring bulbs all coming into bloom. Then it's time to get really serious about finishing the spring clean up and getting all new plants into the ground - and that is also exciting.

And then we have time to sit down and smell the flowers and look at what we have wrought and what do we get hit with? The Midsummer Doldrums. This is not a major disaster - just a sort of gentle let-down after all the flurry and rejoicing with which we greet spring. Now we're faced with dying bulb foliage and summer heat - and with the onset of summer heat it seems like a lot of the perennials we planted have slowed down almost as much as we have.

And while we're almost always happy to get the major projects of spring over and done with, suddenly we feel a bit useless. As if our gardens didn't really need us anymore - except for a drink of water every now and then.

But it's not true. There is a lot we can do in the garden now (nothing too strenuous!) that can keep it looking great throughout the season.

First - we have to deal with the leftover bulb foliage. Maybe it was the exceptionally cold spring, but mine seems to have hung in there much longer than usual. Where normally it would be well withered, and I could get rid of it with a clean conscience, this year it still seems pretty green - a sign that I had best leave it while the bulbs continue to draw energy from it. Except that right now it's an eyesore.

I have two favorite plants for this situation. One is the daylily. Most daylilies go dormant over winter and start sending up fans of foliage about the same time the bulbs are popping out of the ground. By the time the bulbs are done, they have turned into healthy clumps of foliage and are sending up flowering scapes. The foliage is just similar enough to that of most spent bulbs that the leftovers of spring seem to go unnoticed among the new, healthy leaves and flowers of the daylily.

Hostas are also great for this. In shady places, any hosta will do - and remember - the larger the hosta the more bulb detritus it will hide. A huge hosta like 'Sum and Substance' can cover what was once a fabulous bulb display all by itself, and add a spot of brightness to the garden at the same time. Just remember - you can use gold and chartreuse hostas in the sun if you are in the north - but blues and greens need shade or the leaves will get sun burnt. In the south, the intense heat of afternoon sun may be too much even for the sun-tolerant golds.

And for sun or part shade, peonies are also great for disguising old foliage. They will flower about the same time as most irises and the foliage stays good looking all summer long. And it's a nice, big clump of foliage that can hide a multitude of sins. Just remember to cut off the spent flower heads, as they can look a bit tatty when finished.

For a real camouflage job, use Oriental poppies along with the daylilies and/or hostas. The leaves of the Oriental poppy actually emerge in winter, giving us something fresh and green to look at. They start really growing just as the bulbs start winding down. They give a truly spectacular blooming display that will hide all evidence of spring's leftovers - and then the poppy foliage also goes dormant. But the daylilies and hostas will hide this. Effortless camouflage - all you need to do is plant!

Daylilies are great plants for the dog days of summer. Actually, while it may seem like things are slowing down now, many plants really come into their own in July. You should be seeing Potentilla, monkshood, delphiniums and other beloved perennials - and some of the smaller dahlias and begonias are just now getting ready to launch a flowering display that will go on and on until fall. Coneflowers and rudbeckia are budding out and so are Russian sage and the lilies. It's also time for the geraniums to be in full swing.

And that's where the gardener comes into play. Having planted cleverly to disguise the remains of spring, you now want to keep your summer garden looking as fresh and colorful as possible. And that means deadheading.

With some plants that simply means removing the flower heads when they get droopy. This has both a practical and an aesthetic purpose. Dead flower heads aren't pretty. Getting rid of them automatically makes the place look livelier.

But more important, for many plants, deadheading means that you have prevented the flower from going to seed - and since a plant's main mission in life is to reproduce itself, it will keep trying until it finally does produce seed - or frost nips it. So cutting off the faded flowers from things like veronicas and salvias, dahlias, delphinium, and monkshood will insure a succession of blooms for a long time. With some, you'll get new, large flowers in continuous succession, while others may send up a couple of smaller flowering stems in place of the older, large faded one. But as long as you deadhead you will get more flowers for a longer time than if you leave the plants to their own devices - and the garden will look fresher as well.

With daylilies, the faded flowers can be a real eyesore as well. You want to snap the flower right off the stem - including the part that attaches to the stem, because this is where the seedpod would form. Prevent that from forming, and the daylily will keep on putting up flower scapes for its entire bloom season.

Other plants benefit from a shearing. Geraniums, for instance, put up so many flowers that snipping off every individual seedpod gets old very quickly. So I take shears and when I see fewer flowers and petal-less flower centers (you'll recognize them - this is where geraniums get their nickname of cranesbill), I simply shear off all the stems back down to the leaves. And before you know it, there are more flower buds popping up.

While you're deadheading, keep an eye out for old, dead leaves. You can probably rake through the beds now to finally get rid of the shriveled bulb foliage - when it's ready, it will come away quite easily. Be sure to rake up fallen petals and other debris that can harbor pests and even diseases. Make the soil around your plants as clean and tidy as possible. If you are like most gardeners, this will reveal a lot of weeds lurking just out of sight.

Run a hoe around your plants to get rid of those weeds, and pull any that are too big for the hoe. The earlier you get them the better - some weeds can put out a pretty impressive root system if let go for too long. If you really can't get it out, at least make sure you cut off anything that looks like it may flower. No flowers mean no weed seeds - and that's half the battle.

Finally, treat your beds to a nice layer of fresh mulch. About an inch will do - just make sure that you pull it away from the crowns of the plants - an inch or so of bare earth should show where each plant comes out of the ground. Where you have bare soil, you can pile on more. Mulch encourages earthworms and becomes lovely compost as it decomposes - but before doing that, it is already working to make your garden a better place.

This will not only make the bids look fresh and tidy, but will also help to hold in moisture so you don't have to be watering so often - and mulch will also help to smother weeds trying to germinate below. If fresh weed seeds blow in, they will pull out quite easily. So a bit of cleaning and tidying and mulching now will save you a lot of work, as well as improving the overall show that is midsummer in our gardens.