Deadheading

Beautiful full gardens to not happen by chance.  They demand a lot of work, patience and love. Although it may sound cruel; deadheading your plants keeps them healthy and produces a garden that will obtain rave reviews.

Deadheading is the process of plucking or pinching off dead flowers or cutting back stems to:

• encouraging a second bloom or encourage prolong blooming,
• preventing flower from self-seeding,
• preventing the plants from looking straggly, and
• to encourage the growth of side shoots to obtain a fuller plant.

It is basically the life cycle of a floral plant (angiosperm) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By deadheading you allow the plant to put its energy into flowering, rather than producing seeds.  Remove the dead flowers by snapping them off between your finger and thumb or you can carefully use pruning shears.  When using pruning shears it is best to swish the shears in alcohol between cuts to prevent bacteria from entering the stem.  Just as many flowering plants benefit from deadheading, there are plants that you may wish to let the seed pods to ripen or allow the flowers to dry on the plant for its winter beauty.

Some plants that benefit from deadheading include:

Bellflower, by removing the faded flower spikes you can prolong flowering,

Centaurea, to stop seeds from self sowing, this plant is a rapid spread,

Coreopsis, to prolong flowering,

Dianthus, some varieties are self seeding,

Hollyhock, to stop seeds from self sowing,

Salvia, to encourage a longer blooming time,

Pyrethrum, cut back to encourage longer blooming time,

Coneflower, to stop seeds from self sowing.