Sun 10 May 2020

Tips for deadheading flowers in your garden

When you read about gardening and plant care tips, you may hear the term deadheading flowers. If you have not deadheaded flowers in the past, not to worry. This process is easier than you think and it will benefit your plants in so many ways.

Why you should deadhead flowers

Before learning about the process itself, it’s important to understand the benefits of deadheading flowers. Some of these advantages include:

  • Neater plants: When you remove dying flowers from your plants, your garden will look better.
  • Encourage blooming: Plants produce flowers in order to set seed. However, if you remove the flowers before they go to seed, the plant will produce more flowers for this purpose.
  • Energy conservation: Plants send energy to their leaves and flowers from the moment they start to grow until they perish. If you remove the dying flowers, the plant will no longer use its energy on these blooms but, instead, it will grow new ones.

How to deadhead your flowering plants

There are a number of methods that you can use for deadheading flowers. Here are some techniques that will help ensure that your garden is healthy and beautiful:

  • Pruning: This is one of the most popular techniques and it is perfect for plants like coneflowers and daylilies. Using hand pruners, you can cut away various stems as needed. If you notice healthy buds lower down on the stem, you should cut until the top of these flowers. There is no need to cut away healthy flowers.
  • Pinching: If the stalks of your flowering plant are thin, you can pinch these stalks off between your fingers.
  • Shearing: This is another option if you are deadheading flowers that are particularly small. Wait until several flowers are past their prime before you shear the plant back. Yes, you will lose some flowers in the process, but it will leave your plant looking lovely and fresh.

As you can see, deadheading flowers is really simple and there are easy methods that you can use for all types of plants. Make sure that you always deadhead or prune your plants at the right time so that you do not cause more harm than good.