Cone Flower Removal - For How Long?

Well - Today was the day.

Cone Flower Extraction Day.

As I pulled all of my cone flowers and black eyed susans from my garden beds I started thinking:

How long should I wait for replanting?

We normally get a nice wet cold winter here in Delaware.

And I can just hope that I can pull every infected or potentially infected plant out now so nothing survives to pass on the disease in my garden (that is a bit of a far fetched idea seeing as how it infects over 300 different species of plants though). But at least I'm trying right?

Every nook and cranny checked…

Finding the roots - looking for those pink buds that are ready for overwintering and blooming next spring. And out with them - into the heap of dying growth from this year.

And in my mood of pulling things out - out with a lot of the Russian Sage.

It grows so well in my garden - to the point of being too much.

There are more cone flowers in this bed that I didn't get to.

Maybe tomorrow I'll pull some more - and get to the mint and butterfly bush babies that are threatening to take over too.

And my mom's little bird hanging out with the Hellebores that seem to have a bit of pep right now from a bit of the cold we had in the last month.