What to do with spring flowers after they bloom?

What should I do with my spring flowering perennials that are done blooming?  They are looking a little messy.

A: Remove spent flower stems from your spring flowering perennials like irises, lupine, columbine, leaving behind as much foliage as possible.  However, I like to leave just a few flowers to develop seed pods and let them reseed themselves around the garden.  More often than not, they find places to grow that are even better than where I originally planted them.

Keith Funk is handling our Q & A this year. You may have visited one of Keith’s Denver area gardens on a tour or know him from his years at Echter’s and now at Nick’s Garden Center. For 30 years he’s been heard every Saturday morning from 7-9 with fellow Wise Guy, Jim Borland, on the Garden Wise Radio Show on Legends 810AM.