Getting Perennials to Rebloom

By doing a little work you can often get some perennials to rebloom by removing the spent flowers before they set seed.   Once seed has set, it is probably too late for a rebloom.  Two methods done for a rebloom are:  1)  Cutting the entire plant, flowers and foliage back by 1/3 to 1/2 after most of the flowers are done blooming.  Do not wait until they seed even if this means cutting off some new flowers.   2)  Deadheading.  There are two ways to deadhead.  If the flower stem is soft you can just pinch the flower off.  If the flower is on a stiff stem, cut the stem back to where a new set of leaves is formed or at least half way down.  After you have done this, give the plant a small amount of fertilizer that has the middle number the lowest, (example 5-10-5) and water it.    Below is a list of flowers that usually will rebloom.

Cutting Back the Plant:
Nepeta (cat mint)
Salvia (sage)
Tickseed (Coreopsis)
Cranesbill (hardy geraniums)
Scabiosa (pin cushion)
Gaillardia (blanket flower)
Achillea (yarrow)
Helenium (sneezeweed)

Deadheading:
Echinacea (cone flowers)
Delphinium
Penstemon

Note:  Deadheading will encourage more blooms on any plant because by removing spent flowers you are now giving more energy to the plant to produce more blooms.