Deadheading: a garden maintenance necessity

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By David Silver on July 15, 2012, 3:29pm

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I have always thought that a great name for a gardening company would be "The Grateful Deadheaders". Deadheading is the gardening term for the removal of spent flowers and it is a necessary part of garden maintenance.

The purpose of deadheading is twofold. By removing faded flowers, we are opening up the plant to air, light and circulation. This helps plants to ward off fungal infections. Secondly, removal of the flowers encourages the plant to produce another crop of flowers. For some of our plants in the garden, this continual deadheading process will allow some plants to produce flowers right until frost.

Endless Summer Hydrangeas would not be "Endless" were it not for deadheading. If you continue to remove the spent flowers as they go, new growth will produce new flowers and we can keep this process going right up until frost. You can, of course, cut flowers that are full and still have their color to bring indoors for decoraton. This will not hurt the plant at all. Cutting a little at a time will give you a good balance of fullness out in the garden and an extended production of new flowers. Waiting for all the blossoms to fade and then cutting all the spent blossoms off at once will result in an extended period of green growth with no new flowers for a period of several weeks. Deadheading gradually, and also taking some fresh flowers off will give you the greatest extension of the blooming period.

Not all plants produce a second or third flush of flowers. For instance, once astilbe and hosta are done flowering, they are done for the season and deadheading will not produce a second crop of flowers. The same is true for many of the daylilies and for many types of roses. However, it is still desirable to take off the spent flowers. On the Lace cap hydrangeas be careful not to take too much off: either just take the dead flower off, or one or two nodes down from the flower. The Lace cap hydrangeas bloom on old wood (the growth that they put on this season will flower the next season). If you take too much off this type of Hydrangea, you will not get flowers the next year.

Some of the perennials which are notable for continually producing a crop of flowers after deadheading are Heuchera, Rudbekia, and Echinacea. Stella D'Oro is a reblooming daylily but its second crop does not appear until the Fall. But unless you deadhead the Stealla D'Oro immediately after it finishes blooming, you will not get the second crop of flowers. Phlox will rebloom, but the second flower is much smaller than the first. Monarda (bee balm) can rebloom, but it also has a smaller flower the second round. Many types of roses will rebloom, notably the New Dawn climbing roses, "Knockout" roses (also called Easy Care) and many of the shrub roses. On the shrub roses cut to the first outward facing leaf that has 5 leaves: that is where the new bud will grow. On climbers, the first five leafed stem is very close to the bud and it does not matter whether you cut to an inward facing or outward facing leaf.

Deadheading annuals is a must as well. Certain annuals like impatiens and begonias keep on producing flowers without our intervention. But other flowers like zinnias, geraniums and dahlias must be deadheaded on a regular basis if you want them to continue to produce flowers until frost. If we leave the dead flowers on the plant, the plant will quickly go to seed and no longer produce any flowers. Certain annuals, like Coleus need to be pinched so that they will not produce flowers. Once a Coleus develops flowers, it will go to seed and the plant will die. As Fall approaches, it is difficult to keep Coleus from developing flowers, so go ahead and enjoy the flowers at that point.

Here it is, the middle of July already and the summer is speeding along. Deadheading is a must for enjoying those blooms while we have them.

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