Keeping Your Garden Blooming

Different ways to prolong a garden's bloom.

Salvia nemerosa 'May Night'
Item # 84780 		Salvia nemorosa 'May Night'
May Night Meadow Sage

each $5.29
3 to 6 $4.99
7 or more $4.79
Nepeta x faassenii 'Select Blue'
Item # 71289 		Nepeta faassenii 'Select Blue'
Blue Catmint

each $5.29
3 to 6 $4.99
7 or more $4.79
Lavandula angustifolia 'Sharon Roberts'
Item # 63113 		Lavandula angustifolia 'Sharon Roberts'
Sharon Roberts English Lavender

each $5.99
3 or more $5.79
Agastache rugosum
Item # 11822 		Agastache rugosum
Korean Hyssop

each $7.99
3 to 6 $7.79
7 or more $7.59
  • Topic: Pruning
  • Keywords: bloom, dead-heading, growth cycle, Maintenance, gardens
  • Date: June 2002

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Deadheading plays an important role in keeping your garden tidy and blooming through a long hot summer. It’s important to pinch off blooms that have faded, especially on plants that will repeat flower. If you keep your annuals deadheaded they will reward you with prolific blooms in spite of the heat.

Left to their own devices, the cycle of a flowering plant is to put forth a bloom, fertilize the blossom and produce an ovary (fruit). Once this task of reproduction was complete, the plant would then expend its energy and nutrients on the developing fruit instead of creating more flowers. By preventing seed formation, through deadheading, the energy of the plant is diverted into producing more flowers.

There are occasions in which you would not want to deadhead. If the plant characteristically self-seeds and you want to take advantage of this behavior, you will obviously want to let the plant set seed.

Deadheading also ‘neatens up’ the garden. There are some annuals and perennials, like poppies, that don’t rebloom after being deadheaded. In these instances, deadheading serves to remove unsightly seed heads and keep your garden looking healthy. The tidier your garden, the less likely bugs will find hiding places from which to launch assaults on your growing things. Also, just getting out into the garden regularly for activities like deadheading (five minutes a night) keeps your finger on the pulse and alerts you to potential insect or fungus problems before they get out of control

To deadhead your plants, simply pinch off the individual blooms on plants like pansies or petunias. On plants like daisies that grow on single stems, cut the flower back as far as you can after the plant blooms. As always, use the right tool—if the stem is woody and pinching off growth with your fingers results in jagged edges, use a small pair of pruners. On roses, cut back the spent bloom to 1/4 inch above a leaflet connection, at a strong angle. The more leaflets there are at the cut point, the stronger the support the resulting bloom will receive. Most rosarians suggest a five leaflet minimum.