As your spring blooming perennials stop blooming, it is a good time to remove the seed heads that develop. This is the process called deadheading. Removing the seeds before they can mature is beneficial to the plant, because the plant does not waste energy on unwanted seeds. That same energy can be used by the plant to grow more stems and leaves to look fuller. More leaves means more food production, which means more food will be stored in the roots for better survival over the winter and for a healthier and prettier plant next spring. Sometimes deadheaded plants produce more flowers later in the season, giving the plant a double season of bloom.

Removing the seeds may seem like too much work; however, besides being beneficial to the plant, it is often beneficial to you, because many perennials freely seed themselves around the garden. It is easier to cut off some seed heads that are sticking up in the air than it is to pull a bunch of plants sprouting up at ground level in all the wrong places. Cutting off the heads and leaving some of the stalk is safer for the plant than pulling the heads because some perennials can be pulled out of the ground with a sharp tug on the seed head.

Question: The ends of my Bradford pear tree branches are turning black. Is this a serious problem, or can I just prune it out?

Answer: It sounds like the tree has a bacterial disease called fireblight. It looks like someone has taken a lighter to the end of the branch scorching the leaves. Often the end of the branch will bend down and look like a shepherd's crook. This disease affects the rose family, including roses, apples, pears, crabapples, pyracantha, serviceberry, spirea, raspberry, mountain ash, quince and cotoneaster among others.

The bacteria survive the winter in cracks and damaged areas of the stems and branches. In the spring, sap and bacteria ooze out of the cracks. The ooze drips and splashes onto young succulent growth, infecting it. It is also transferred by bees and other insects who feed on the ooze before pollinating a flower.

The bacteria move from the flower into the stems, causing the black shepherd's hook appearance. The bacteria stay in the stem if the plant can wall off that area. They move down into the trunk if the plant doesn't stop them, where it can kill the whole plant. New infections can occur anytime the stem is damaged by pruning, insects or hail and wind damage. This is especially true if the weather is warm and humid.

Usually, the disease doesn't spread rapidly and the diseased branches should be removed in the winter, when new infections won't start in the freshly cut ends. Make the cut at least a foot below the visibly damaged tissue. Sterilize the pruning tool between every cut, so you don't transfer the bacteria to new branches or new susceptible plants.

Pruning in the summer should only be done on plants where the disease appears to be spreading rapidly. Cut out as much of the diseased plant as possible, sterilizing the pruner as you go.

An antibacterial spray labeled for fireblight would need to be applied in spring when plants are in bloom, long before symptoms appear. Don't fertilize these plants, as fast growing succulent tissue seems to be easily infected.

Email questions to Jeff Rugg at info@greenerview.com. To find out more about Jeff Rugg and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.