Deadheading is the most straightforward, most satisfying gardening technique you can use to extend blooms and beauty in your garden. It allows them to use their energy to work on more blossoms, not seeds. It is an easy, speedy activity that will significantly improve the display and aesthetics of your garden.

Why is Deadheading Important, and What Does it Mean?

The art of deadheading involves removing dead or faded flowers from plants. The benefits of deadheading go beyond just making your landscape look better; these will be covered in more detail below:

  1. Encourages More Blooms: Many flowering plants encourage more blooms after deadheading.
  2. Prevents Seed Formation: When cut off, spent blooms redirect the plant's energy from seed production to growth and flowering.
  3. Encourages a neat garden: deadheading removes wilted and browning flowers, making your garden appear fresh and healthy.

How to Deadhead: The Basics

Deadheading is simple and requires few tools. Here's how:

  1. Look for fading, wilting, or browning flowers.
  2. Pinch your fingers or use a pair of clean garden shears to remove the spent bloom. Cut just above the nearest set of healthy leaves or a bud.
  3. The deadheaded flowers should be collected and added to your compost pile.

Although deadheading is quite simple, there are some specifics for various plants that can improve your outcomes.

Expert Tips for Effective Deadheading

Here are some expert tips for proper deadheading:

1. Know Your Plants

Not all plants need deadheading; some respond better than others. Among these are the following:

  • Deadheading plants like roses, marigolds, zinnias, and petunias regularly can increase their height and yield more flowers.
  • Self-cleaning plants naturally drop their dead flowers and often don't need deadheading; impatiens and some begonias are among them.
  • Seed producers, such as sunflowers or coneflowers, should consider allowing some spent flowers to form seeds for wildlife.

Understanding the growth habits of your plants will help you decide where to focus your efforts.

2. Timing is Everything

Regular deadheading is beneficial, especially throughout the bloom season. Every week, set aside some time to check your plants for wasted blossoms. Flowers may start to set seeds if left open for too long, which tells the plant to slow or stop blooming.

For plants like roses, deadheading is typically done following the initial bloom flush. As a result, the plant will be compelled to bloom again.

3. Use the Right Tools

While some flowers can be pinched off with your fingers, others may require sharper tools. At Eureka Farms, we recommend having these gardening supplies to keep plants healthy:

  • Pruning Shears: For the thicker stems or woody plants, like roses or hydrangeas.
  • Snips/Scissors: These are effective for delicate flowers and soft-stemmed plants.
  • Gloves: This protects the hands from thorns and sap.

Always sanitize your tools before and after use to prevent the spreading of diseases between plants.

Avoid Frequent Mistakes

Deadheading is straightforward, but a few simple mistakes can stop your garden from advancing:

  • Cutting Too Low: Do not cut below the main stem, near the base of a plant, as it will injure the plant and make recovery take longer.
  • Neglecting Maintenance: Deadheading once or twice a season will not give the best results. Consistency has to be maintained.
  • Overdoing It: While deadheading can be good, removing too much foliage or growth can weaken the plant.

When Not to Deadhead

Remember that the life cycle of all plants is to reproduce themselves, and most of them do it by producing fruit and/or seed. Since this life cycle has been going on for thousands of years, birds and mammals have evolved with these plants to eat their fruits and seeds, with some species. Blackbirds, for example, have an active role in distributing new plants.

Some birds and mammals feed on seeds, berries, and other fruits in the fall and winter. Remember that deadheading might affect them, but if you live in town, this is likely insignificant. Virtually all seeding and flowering plants offer resources for birds and other fauna, such as roses, bottlebrush trees, teasel, sunflowers, and lavender and lavender varieties.

Step-by-Step Guide

  • First, plan how you are going to deadhead. It may be easier for some plants to cut all of their stems back at once (like with tickseed).
  •  For others, you go bloom by bloom. Cut the flowers back immediately if the plant has many smaller stems and blooms (like lavender). Deadhead flowers one by one, like a rose, in case the plant has robust blooms.
  • Look down the stem and see if any buds are sprouting from below. Do not cut off any flowers which haven't yet had a chance to bloom!
  • Cut off dead flowers! Use clean pruners to cut the flower off. If you find no buds and many leaves attached to the stem, chop it back entirely. 
  • If you see some buds or still have some leaves attached to your stem, just take them a couple of inches back, and the rest of the stalk should get more flowers. Make sure you cut them cleanly and then collect any fallen debris. Then, water your plants well afterward.

Type of Plants To Deadhead

Annuals should be deadheaded often to continue flowering. It can allow for a flowering period in the fall. Deadhead by pinching or snapping off the faded flowers. Avoid cutting through adjacent buds. Sweet alyssum is a small-flowered annual that should be sheared once most of its flowers are faded. Provide them with consistent fertilizer to stimulate further bloom. Annuals such as Calibrachoa and some varieties of petunias do not need to be deadheaded because they are self-cleaning.

Some perennials will rebloom if deadheaded. These include astrantia, black-eyed Susan, coneflower, lupine, penstemon, phlox, salvia, Shasta daisy, and veronica. Some shrubs will produce more flowers if deadheaded. These include Hummingbird Bush, hydrangea, rose, and spirea. Blooming once per season, irises, lilacs, lilies, peonies, and tulips, for example, will not produce new blooms when deadheaded, but their spent flowers can still be removed, putting more energy into the plant or bulb, hence leading to vigorous growth and blooms the following year. Once-per-season bloomers, astilbe, and ornamental grasses are left over for the showy seed heads.

Note: These are not exhaustive lists of what plants to deadhead. Check the specifics for your particular plants.

How to Buy Plants From Eureka Farms?

We are licensed for a full-scale nursery with an extensive inventory of landscaping trees, fruit trees, palm trees, and the most extensive houseplant collection. If you want to deadhead your plants, Eureka Farms can guide you on how to do it all, from topiary trees and hedges to everything in between. You can rest assured that we will handle the shipment with the utmost care across the country so that when your plants reach you, they will be as fresh as new. These indoor plants require less upkeep, improve home air cleanliness, brighten moods, and provide essential touches of the natural world to the work-from-home office. Happy Planting!