I'm pretty slow to cut them back so I normally only get a 2nd bloom, don't think I've ever gotten to a 3rd round!

I'll have to go outside and get a look at mine! I doubt I have a 3rd bloom, though. My current re-blooms are dianthus (just a few blooms per plant), Joseph's Coat roses (unexpectedly lush and gorgeous; this is its first year), and my Red Valerian are looking kinda raggedy but are still blooming.

Lizbest1. This is the 1st year, I've paid attention to the bloom pattern. The 3rd one is so lackluster, I don't think it's work even counting.

Faith - the long bloom is why I love Valerian. The neighbor's is in need of deadheading but is still in a great shape.

My lesson this year was that to have a good rebloom on my May Nights, I can't "deadhead" but I have to cut them back all the way to the ground. Just carefully cutting off the spent spikes only gave me spotty rebloom. I discovered this late in the season when in a mad frenzy I cut them all to the ground and got a rebloom just as good as the first. Cutting back all the way to the ground is much less work also! I've been too busy to try for a third, but they are still putting out blooms through the old faded spikes, just not as many as a full bloom, and about as many as before I cut back entirely.

Hi all,

If anybody is interested, here's some info about cutting down things like Salvia 'May Night'! This is part of one of my Gardening With Skybird sheets! In the copied part below I specifically mention spike Veronica and Solidago/Goldenrod, but it all applies to Salvia too! And 'May Night" IS one of the ones that regrows fast enough that some years you can get a THIRD primary bloom! It just depends on "how long" summer is, and how quickly you get it cut down as the earlier primary blooms start to fade! With my 'May Night' I cut it an inch or even less above the ground when I cut it down!

Some perennials, if cut all the way down and they have time, will come back and produce a whole new “primary bloom.” If you're going to cut a plant "all the way down" cut it no more than a couple inches above the ground (an inch is usually good)—or accept the fact that whatever stems you do leave are going to die and be visible for the rest of the year! Also, if you don't cut them down all the way, some plants will develop new shoots from whatever is left of the old stem—but the "old part” of the stem will still look ratty even tho the new growth on top will look good!

One of the plants that can be cut down to the ground and have time to regrow and rebloom—usually!—is spike veronica. However, spike veronica is also one of the plants that produces “secondary” flowers, and the secondary blooms are already often well developed before the primary flowers are done, so you can also just deadhead the individual primary flowers when they get ratty looking, and let the secondary flowers develop. However, secondary flowers, on veronica and many other perennials, get smaller and smaller as they continue to develop, so the choice is to keep “some” color on the plant for a longer time with the secondary flowers, or to cut the plant all the way down and hope there’s enough time for it to produce a second “primary” bloom with larger flowers. Goldenrod (Solidago) is another of the plants that can be cut all the way down and will often have time to rebloom.

Hope some of that helps some of you--and with more than just the 'May Night'!

Skybird