By Tamara Galbraith

Summer's in full swing, and your previously glorious flowers are starting to look a little ragged around the edges.

Many plants will benefit - and even rebloom - after a mid-summer session of "deadheading," that is, removing spent flowers and/or stems to promote new growth.

Here's a quick guide of deadheading techniques for different types of flowers:

Pinch off individual dead flowers on: balloonflower, bellflower, daylily, delphinium, foxglove, hibiscus, hollyhock. (Also included: some irises that will rebloom in the fall, depending on the variety.)

Do an overall snip of dead blooms (about 2" below the flower) on: blanketflower, columbines, globe thistle, goldenrod, geranium, Jacob's ladder, salvia, coreopsis/tickseed.

Cut the entire spent flower stem off to either a sideshoot or to the plant's base on: baby's breath, bleeding heart, cardinal flower, catmint, coral bells, foamflower, gaura, Jupiter's beard, lavender, lupine, mullein, painted daisy, pincushion flower, coneflower, Shasta daisy, speedwell, spiderwort, Stoke's aster.