Wow, summer heat descended on the Victoria area early. The high temperatures each day in late May reached the mid- to high 90s, and until this week, there was little rainfall. Our landscape and container gardens were looking a little peaked as spring-planted annuals and perennials faded.

It is time to refresh them by trimming some plants and replacing others with those that can carry into fall.

Assess current containers

Take a look at your current container gardens. Do they sport perennials that have become leggy and overgrown? Or have some of the plants died, leaving brown stems and dried-out root balls? Has the soil compacted or shrunk away from the sides of the container?

If the answer to one or more of those questions is yes, it is tempting to dump the entire flowerpot and start all over. But plants and potting mix are expensive, so it is wise to carefully assess each container before deciding how to proceed.

Refresh/rehydrate potting mix

If the soil in your container has shrunk away from the sides of the container, it will need to be rehydrated. Not only will the soil be dry and hard, it will most likely be nutritionally deficient.

The first step in rehydrating the soil depends on the size of the container. If the pot is small, submerge it in a tub of water and let it sit until it stops bubbling. Then lift the pot out of the tub and let it drain well.

If the pot is larger than you can handle, add water to the top of the soil until it stops draining out the bottom. A flowerpot saucer below the container can be refilled repeatedly until the soil is uniformly moist.

In severe cases, try wedging wadded-up newspaper or sphagnum moss between the shrunken soil and the side of the pot. Then keep the newspaper or moss wet until the moisture begins to be absorbed into the potting mix. This might take several days.

After the soil is rehydrated, scoop out some of the old soil, working carefully around the roots of any plants that you will keep. Then add new potting mix, mixing it with the old soil as well as you can. Finally, scratch some slow-release fertilizer in the first couple of inches of the soil.

Thrillers, fillers, spillers

When deciding which plants to keep and which plants to replace, consider the same advice that applies to planting a new container.

You will need some thrillers, tall plants that will help create a pleasing triangular shape to your container; some fillers, lower-growing colorful plants; and some spillers, sprawling plants that will hang over the edge of the pot.

• Carefully prune thrillers

Thrillers are often taller perennials that can last from season to season. Is your current thriller overgrown? If so, consider pruning it carefully to encourage it to fill out and bloom again.

• Remove/replace fillers/spillers

More likely than not, your fillers will be annuals that have quit blooming or have died. For those, your best option is probably replacing them with heat-loving plants like those listed with this column.

Use a hand digger or large spoon to remove plants, taking care not to disturb the roots of plants you will keep. Supplement soil with new potting mix and slow-release fertilizer before adding new plants.

Likewise, remove old spillers and replace them from the suggested list provided.

Maintenance of your summer containers

• Move pots placed on patio/porch

The container that you placed on your patio or porch in early spring might need to be moved to provide some shade, particularly in the late afternoon. Sometimes, moving a flowerpot just a few feet can make a huge difference in the number of hours that the plants are exposed to the harsh summer sun.

• Move pots to flower bed

Consider moving a container to a cool spot in a flower bed to take advantage of shade provided by large shrubs or trees – which can also add a bit of color where previously overlooked.

• Water/mulch/fertilize more frequently

Remember that plants in containers will need to be watered and fertilized more frequently than plants in the ground. On very hot days or during periods of hot, dry winds, you might need to water them more than once a day. Placing them within reach of your sprinklers can reduce the amount of time you will spend in hand-watering.

Mulch your containers, if possible, and continue fertilizing with half-strength, water-soluble fertilizer every couple of weeks.

• Deadhead spent flowers

Finally, deadhead spent flowers and perform some light pruning of your lovely revitalized container throughout the summer. The container garden that you refresh now will reward you well into the fall.