Backyard Gardener: The grateful deadheaded flower
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Hello Mid-Ohio Valley farmers and gardeners! This first week of August finds many gardeners harvesting tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. There is still time to plants some lates summer squash and start some fall vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower.
This week I want to talk about deadheading flowers. As we roll into August, many annual and perennial flowers are blooming. This is the perfect time to get out in your flower beds to rejuvenate your plants and extend the season of color with this horticultural practice.
Deadheading is simply the process of pruning faded or dead flowers from plants to promote new growth and re-flowering. It is one of the most effective tools a backyard gardener can use to keep plants blooming longer, healthier, and more vibrantly.
Keep in mind it is important to keep up with deadheading in the garden throughout the growing season for healthier plants and continual blooms. It not only tidies up the appearance of your garden but also redirects the plant's energy from seed production back into blooming.
The ultimate goal of a plant is to complete its life cycle through successful reproduction, in this case, by seed. If you leave the old flowers in place, the plant thinks its job is done since seeds have formed, so it stops producing new buds. Removing those spent blooms sends a signal to the plant to keep up the flower production.
As blooms fade, pinch or cut off the flower stems below the spent flowers and just above the first set of full, healthy leaves. Always check plants carefully to be sure that no flower buds are hiding amid the faded blooms before you shear off the top of the plant.
The best time to deadhead a flower is when its appearance begins to decline. The frequency of deadheading a particular plant depends on the life span of its blooms. This can range from a day to several weeks, depending on the species. Furthermore, weather greatly affects a flower鈥檚 longevity, as torrential rains and unseasonably hot weather can take a toll on blooms.
Deadheading is easy to do by hand, but here are a few suggestions. Locate the faded bloom and follow the stem down to the first set of healthy leaves or a new bud. For deadheading flowers, lightweight garden snips, small floral bypass pruners or mini floral snips work well, cutting just above the node. Make clean cuts to avoid tearing or damaging the plant.
Get in the habit of evaluating your garden frequently to determine if there are any deadheading needs. Spending a short time in the garden each day will make this task much easier.
Deadheading is a maintenance practice that can be done throughout the growing season and many gardeners find it enjoyable, relaxing and downright therapeutic.
Making a decision about deadheading can be difficult because it is advantageous for some plants and detrimental for others. Many perennials benefit from being deadheaded. These include yarrow (Achillea), false spirea (Astilbe), bellflower (Campanula), tickseed (Coreopsis), larkspur (Delphinium), blanket flower (gaillardia), bee balm (Monarda), evening primrose (Oenothera), and garden phlox (Phlox paniculata). Taller varieties of Sedum, such as Autumn Joy, should be cut back to prevent spindly branches and to promote compact growth.
However, some perennials are great self-seeders and should not be deadheaded. For example, columbine loves to spread and scatter its seedlings to places away from the parent plant. New plants can help fill in areas of your garden or allow you to share plants with other gardeners.
Deadheading is required maintenance for a show stopping garden, and there are a few methods you can use. The first is simply pinching off. If the flower stalks are thin and soft enough, pinch them off between your fingers or with your fingernails. This allows you to deadhead individual blooms on a plant very quickly.
Pinching back also encourages encourage branching and bushier growth, particularly in young or fast-growing plants. Instead of waiting for a flower to fade, you remove the tip of a growing stem, which redirects energy to the side shoots. This results in a fuller plant with more blooming stems later.
This method that works well with many annual flowers such as geraniums, zinnia, salvia, coleus and snapdragons. Pinching should be done when the plant has at least 6 inches of growth and several sets of leaves. Use your fingers or clean snips to remove the top inch of new growth, just above a leaf node.
When deadheading larger annuals or perennial plants with thicker stems such as daylilies and coneflowers, using a hand pruner is recommended so you have nice, clean cuts on the stems. In addition, this prevents plant-tissue injury that could become an entry point for disease.
Many perennials set flowers on stalks over an extended period of time. If there are still unopened buds lower on the stalk, then just remove the dead flower on top. If all blooms on a flower stock have opened, remove the entire stalk at the base of the plant.
When deadheading roses, make your cut right above a stem with five (not three) leaflets to stimulate reblooming. You might want to leave the last set of spent blooms on the plant at the end of the season to allow rose hips to form, as many are very attractive into the fall and winter.
Backyard gardeners should recognize that many perennial plants, such as the peony, only bloom once in a growing season and removing faded blooms will not promote new flowers.
Hollyhocks and foxglove are both biennials, so avoid deadheading these plants to allow them to set seed. If these plants are grown from seed in your garden, you will likely not see blooms until the second season of growth. These seeds will drop in the garden and germinate in the next year.
Some hybrid annuals have been bred to not set seed. This mechanism allows them to continue flowering throughout the growing season. It is not necessary to deadhead continuous bloomers, and you might sometimes hear these plants referred to as "self-cleaning." Impatiens, vinca and begonia are "self-cleaning" and do not require deadheading.
Late fall can change deadheading practices for many flowering plants. Seed pods can provide food for wildlife to enjoy during the winter months. In addition, some plants have very decorative seed pods and present a beautiful display in the garden during the winter.
Birds enjoy perching on coneflowers and snacking on the seed heads. Plants such as Black-eyed Susan and sunflowers are great for attracting goldfinches with their seeds. This is crucial food for them in the winter.
Deadheading may seem like a simple chore, but it is a powerful tool to help you extend the life and beauty of your summer garden. Contact me at the Wood County WVU Extension Office (304)-424-1960 or e-mail me at jj.barrett@mail.wvu.edu with questions. Good Luck and until next time, Happy Gardening!