10 Perennials You Should Always Cut Back in the Fall to Ensure a Healthier Plant This Spring

Break out the pruners now for a more spectacular garden next year.

Most people think of pruning as a late winter or early spring chore, but cutting back some of your perennials in fall can have major benefits for the plant—and your garden. And as it turns out, you can—and should—prune many of your plants now.

"The majority of perennials can be cut back," says Tamara Hogan, plant expert at Fast Growing Trees . "If they don’t provide any winter interest—like daylilies, hosta, and lavender—it is a great idea to clean them up. I would cut back anything that could split due to snow load as well, such as peony or grasses."

Related: 27 Most Popular Perennial Flowers and Plants for Your Garden

Why You Should Cut Back Some Perennials in the Fall

The plants are prone to disease

Some plants are particularly vulnerable to powdery mildew and other diseases, which can run rampant as the plants wilt and go dormant and the weather turns damp and cool. Cutting those plants back can help ensure a stronger, disease-free plant that thrives next season. "Think about what your plant deals with during the season," Hogan says. "If you have a plant that is prone to pests or diseases, cut that back in fall so it doesn’t overwinter."

The flowers self-seed and spread easily

Self-seeding plants are a great way to fill in the landscape if you want more flowers. But if you don't want the plants to spread beyond where you currently have them, you'll need to prune the flowers before they go to seed.

Tips

If you want your garden to be wildlife friendly , consider leaving the blooms there to drop the seeds. Those seeds can help feed birds and other animals during the cold winter months.

The foliage that's left looks unattractive

Evergreens look gorgeous year round, but even plants that wither or dry during the winter can add interest to your landscape. Ornamental grasses , for instance, dry into a straw-like shade and can add a beautiful texture to your landscape, and hydrangea blooms can also stay attractive long into the winter. But other plants can blacken, turn soggy, or otherwise make your garden look more like a horror show than a winter wonderland.

You want to have fewer gardening chores in the spring

For some plants, it doesn't really matter whether you prune them in the spring or fall—but you might want a cleaner look for your landscape over the winter so you start the spring with a blank canvas.

How to Prune Fall Perennials

Most of the rules around fall pruning are similar to what you'd need to do when pruning in late winter or early spring—keep your cuts clean, lop off any dead or diseased parts of the plant, and avoid cutting off what your plant needs to thrive next year. "Remove all dead foliage," Hogan says. "Especially if you have had a frost, this will show you what will need to be taken down."

Use clean pruning shears or bypass pruners

To help prevent spreading any diseases lurking in your plants from one part of the garden to another, you'll need to clean your pruners between plants. You can wipe them down with rubbing alcohol to help kill off any germs before you tackle the next plant.

Decide how far to cut back your perennials

For some perennials, like the self-seeding varieties, you might only want to clip down the flowers themselves. But for plants that you're cutting back to prevent disease or avoid unattractive foliage, you may wish to cut a bit deeper.

No matter how far you cut back your perennials, you'll still want leave a few inches of plant above the soil. "This helps to preserve the crown of the plant and not disturb the roots either," Hogan says. Another benefit? You'll be able to see where your existing plants are when you're doing spring planting, so you don't accidentally disturb your favorite perennials.

Time the pruning right

"Pruning perennials can be done throughout fall as you are doing your fall clean up," Hogan says. "By giving those hard haircuts to the perennials, it signals to the plant to not try to exert a lot of effort before the freezes come. Leave your trees and shrubs to prune when they are fully dormant. This helps to prevent the plant from pushing out new growth before they have to go to sleep." Earlier pruning might encourage your shrub to start some tender new growth that could become damaged and die back over the winter.

For the self-seeding plants, catch the flowers early before they start to produce seeds, so you don't end up with more plants next spring.

Perennials to Consider Pruning in Fall

Peonies

Peonies can be prone to diseases—so a fall prune can help keep those at bay for the following year. The plants will also decay after a frost, so you'll end up with an unattractive and disease-attracting mess if you leave the plant unpruned.

You can cut peonies back to close to the ground, as next year's growth will come straight from the roots, not last year's branches.

Coneflowers

Coneflowers can stay in your garden all winter long, as the flowers go to seed and provide food for overwintering birds. But if you want to control the growth of your coneflowers, you can remove some or all of the flowers after they've bloomed. And if you want a cleaner garden, you can also cut back the plant's stalks to the ground for fresh growth next spring.

Hostas

Hosta leaves wilt and become unattractive in the winter, and can provide a great shelter for some unwanted pests, including rodents and slugs. Worse yet, the slugs will emerge in the spring to feast on the fresh leaves, damaging your hosta.

You'll want to cut back the foliage to just a few inches off of the ground, once the first hard frost has hit and the leaves look dead.

Phlox

Phlox is one of those plants that is especially prone to powdery mildew, so fall pruning can help reduce the chances that your plants develop it. After the first hard frost, you can prune the plant close to the ground, leaving just a few inches of the plant so you can find it in the spring.

Tips

Because powdery mildew is easy to spread from plant to plant, you'll want to ensure you give your pruners a good clean before you move onto another plant.

Daylilies

Daylilies leave unattractive stalks after their bloom season is over—so it's best to pull those in the fall for a cleaner garden.

Bee Balm

Like phlox, bee balm is prone to developing powdery mildew. You'll want to cut it back to just above the soil to prevent disease from taking hold and encourage stronger growth next year.

Bearded Iris

These dramatic bulb plants provide late spring and early summer color in your garden. But they're prone to an array of different diseases and pests that can damage your plants.

You can remove spent blooms down at the base of the stalk during the early summer. Then, wait until fall—and after a few frosts, remove all the foliage as well.

Lavender

If you haven't already taken off the lavender flowers as they bloomed in the summer, you can lop off the ends of the plant in early fall, to help your lavender plant keep its shape and grow in even thicker next year. You should cut each branch about an inch below the bloom.

Yarrow

When yarrow flowers begin to fade, you'll find that the plant itself starts to look unattractive. If you'd like, you can cut it close to the ground, leaving just the leaves at the base of the plant.

Black-Eyed Susan

Black-eyed susan (AKA rudbeckia) is another self-seeding plant that can add more growth to your garden. But if you don't want more plants, you can trim away blooms as they fade—and cut the plant back by a third once the frosts begin to hit.

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