Use deadheading to care for your plants and keep the blooms coming. Source: morgueFile.
It’s not a ’60s rock group – it’s plant care. Deadheading is taking the flowers off a plant as it begins to fade. The average Kansas City garden has lots of blooming greenery that requires deadheading to encourage the plant to continue to produce blossoms.
Whether you have roses, perennials or annuals, taking off the flowers as they weaken stops the chemical signals from reaching the seeds, and the plant begins to bloom again. Your garden stays attractive and your plants focus their energy into maximum bloom time.
Here are some tips for proper deadheading:
- Snip flowers with tough, dense stems like phlox, aster, zinnia, lily, hosta, and peony. Use a sharp pruning scissors to cut off the flower about a .25 inch above the next bud. Snip off the faded spikes of salvia, geranium and delphinium to promote a second bloom.
- Break off the flowers that have long stems where the stalk meets the stem. This includes flowers like the daylily, hollyhock, gladiola, and iris.
- Simply use your fingers to pinch off the more herbaceous flowers like chrysanthemums, marigolds, poppies, columbine, petunias, and impatiens.
Rosehill Gardens has all the specialist advice you need for correct deadheading. Contact us online or call us today at 816-941-4777. Check out our Plant Care Guide online and connect with us on Facebook for more gardening tips.