Question: I have a gardenia bush that has become tall and spindly. It has just finished blooming. Can I trim it back now so that it eventually will get fuller at the bottom? My neighbor says her bush blooms again in the fall. Should I wait until then?Answer: As the main flowering season for most gardenias is about over, you can trim your gardenia. This is an opportunity to shape up the plant and do the pruning that will encourage side growth on the branches and the fuller plant you want. It would be better to do this now, so that new growth has plenty of time to develop and acclimate before cold weather. Some gardenia hybrids produce a second season of bloom. I think if yours did this it would have been apparent in prior years. This summer, it is more important to develop a shapely, better looking plant. Do not expect results overnight, but you will have taken the right start with judicious pruning in the next couple of weeks. I have seen excellent results with pruning like this.

Question: A redesign of our deck causes me to move a hydrangea. This is not just any old hydrangea, it's special. My mother gave this to us years ago and it is 5 feet by 5 feet and full of blue all summer. Can I safely move this now, and should I cut it back?Answer: Wait until the plant is dormant and most of the leaves have fallen off in November. Cut back some of the oldest, least floriferous stems to the base of the plant. Then dig it with care and move it to the new spot. Root-stimulating fertilizer will help the roots develop through the winter and get the plant off to a better start. It will take at least one growing season to recover and produce the masses of beautiful flowers you enjoy.

Question: My bleeding heart, still a youngster as we just planted it this spring, is looking rather bad in its top branches, they are yellowing to brown around the leaf edges, and some of the branches are appearing to fall off. The lower foliage looks fine, and it's seeing a lot of new growth overall. Is there any pruning needed at this point, or is it over or under watered?Answer: In our climate, the old-fashioned bleeding heart tends to disappear early in the summer, because of lack of water. In wetter, cooler climates, the foliage would hang on until late summer or autumn. But our dry soil, and remember the past two months have been quite dry, tends to encourage an early retreat into dormancy. That is what you are seeing now. But that does not mean it is gone. It should send up new stems and bloom again next spring. Because of this normal disappearing act, gardeners often plant bleeding hearts in combination with hardy ferns, which tend to get big about the time the bleeding heart is going down. My experience is that these old-fashioned plants are short-lived perennials.

Question: We want to line the edge of our sunny driveway. We are not interested in using monkey grass. What else can we consider?Answer: A driveway in the front yard calls for plants along the edge that look good all year. That means an evergreen. Ivy won't do because it will soon run all over the place. And I don't imagine that you want to make it a flower garden with daylilies, Shasta daisies or black-eyed susans looking great in summer, but not so interesting the rest of the year.Two types of creeping junipers could suit this strip of your landscape. These include Blue Rug, which typically grows 4- to 6-inches tall, and Procumbens, which matures to about 6 inches. These could eventually form a low mat along the drive. Junipers also tolerate drought pretty well, but a wayward tire would be hard on them.Another possibility is evergreen candytuft. This is a flower garden edger that looks good almost all year and bears pretty white flowers in early to mid-spring. It will not take abuse by feet or tires. The length of your driveway and the cost of these more expensive plantings could lead you to reconsider monkey grass, or liriope as it is named. A little liriope goes a long way in time, and you could have a fluffy border to take the hard edge off your concrete drive in a year or two—and spend your money on other parts of the landscape.