Deadheading flowers is one of my favorite gardening tasks. It keeps me in touch with all the plants, it instantly tidies them up, and it indulges my love of productive puttering. I can even do it when it’s not the best time to get garden-dirty — say, when I have a few minutes before heading someplace but won’t have time to cleanup, which I’d need to do if I got into weeding, for example.
Why deadhead
There are two reasons to deadhead your flowering plants. One is that the plant will immediately look better — more vibrant, happy, less on-its-way-out, so to speak. The other is that it will reward you with fuller growth and longer blooming time.
If you leave the spent flowers on a plant, the plant will proceed to form seed-heads. In most cases, you’d rather the plant put energy into making more blooms than seeds, right? Most plants will rebloom all season if you keep deadheading.
Even plants that won’t reward you with more blooms (astilbe and peonies only bloom once, for example) are better off if you deadhead them. That’s because taking off the dying blooms allows the plant to put energy into growing roots and foliage instead.
It’s also a good idea to deadhead self-sowing plants that you don’t want to spread. For example, if you leave chives to flower and don’t cut off the spent flowers, they’ll set seeds and scatter them, and the chives will spread across the area. You need to deadhead unless you want this to happen (sometimes it’s exactly what you want!).
So deadheading is a good thing to do. That said, don’t fret if you don’t get to it. It’s not like neglecting to water your flowers. They’ll be fine — just not as tidy and full of blooms as they will be once you get back to deadheading them.
When to deadhead
Start deadheading your flowers in the spring, as soon as the first flower is tired. Continue throughout the growing season, cutting each flower as soon as it’s spent or the petals are falling off.
I like to deadhead in the mornings, when I check on plants or water them. It’s my favorite way to start the day. But less often is fine, too — even once a week, say, on the weekend.
When to stop deadheading
If you stop deadheading when the weather turns cool in the fall, you give your plants (especially perennials) time to reseed — instead of growing more flowers — so they can spread. The seedpods will also provide animals with food during the cold winter months.
How to deadhead
Deadheading is easy to do and so rewarding. Here are some tips:
• Deadhead both annuals and perennials. Most, but not all, flowers benefit from deadheading. Even those that don’t need deadheading will look tidier if you do it. Some, though, won’t bloom the following year if you deadhead and don’t allow it to set seed. See the list below. If you’re not sure if a flower should be deadheaded (and it’s not on my list), look it up.
• Pinch with your fingers or cut with a pair of garden shears. For woody plants, like roses, you may want a little pair of pruners. I have a little pair of garden scissors that I keep in my metal gardening bucket. I toss the bucket handle over my arm and am ready to deadhead in no time.
• Cut or pinch off the spent flower — the whole flower, not just petals. You want to encourage healthy new growth, so don’t just cut off the flower, leaving a bare stem sticking up. Cut just above the first leaf below the flower.
• You don’t need to remove flowers one at a time. If the flowers are really covering the plant, no worries. Just cut back the plant a couple of inches to deadhead them all at once. This works for mounding perennials, too, like ground phlox. Just wait until the mound is covered with mostly spent flowers, then give it a good haircut all around.
• If your plant has multiple blooms on a stem, cut the whole flower stalk off at the base of the plant when about ¾ of the blooms on the stem have faded. (Otherwise it will start setting seeds before those last flowers finish blooming.)
Flowers that will benefit from deadheading:
Blanket flowers
Bee balm
Bleeding heart
Campanula
Coleus (will become bushier, fuller)
Coneflower
Cosmos
Dahlias
Daylilies
Delphinium
Echinacea
Geranium (Leave the flower cluster until the entire cluster is finished blooming, then cut the whole stem off.)
Goldenrod
Heliotrope
Hydrangea
Lavender
Lilacs
Lilies (Pinch off the blooms. Then, when all the flowers on the stem have faded, cut back the whole stem.)
Lupine
Marguerite daisy
Marigolds
Painted daisies
Petunias
Phlox
Pincushion flower
Roses
Rudbeckia
Sage
Salvia
Shasta daisy
Snapdragon
Sweet pea
Veronica
Yarrow
Zinnia
Plants that don’t need deadheading
Some flowers continue to bloom without deadheading (though you may choose to deadhead some of these to keep them tidy.) Others produce beautiful, ornamental seedpods that you’ll want to encourage. And some will self-seed and you’ll be happy about it (hollyhock, foxglove, and lobelia, for example).
Ageratum
Angelonia
Astilbe (If you like the pretty dried plumes, leave them. If you like a tidier look and a bushier plant, cut them off.)
Baptisia
Begonia
Bougainvillea
Browallia
Calibrachoa
Canna
Cleome
Euphorbia
Heuchera
Impatiens
Lamium
Lantana
Liatris
Lobelia
Nemesia
Ornamental grasses (will provide interesting seedheads)
Oxalis
Peony
Sedum
Sunflowers (Let the birds have the seeds for winter food!)
Verbena
How do you feel about deadheading? Enjoyable or tedious? What flowers are you growing this season?
You might also like: How to clean a birdbath, How to grow knockout roses, and How to keep your hanging flower baskets pretty throughout the summer.