Deadheading Your Flowers

You'll spend a lot of time during the summer deadheading your flowers if you want to have continuous blooms throughout the growing season. A plants goal is to grow, flower and then seed. If you've been removing the dead flowers then the plant recognizes it has no dead flower heads for seed production so it must make more flowers.

Deadheading your flowers will allow you to enjoy the blooming or flowering stage of your plants for an extended period of time. The extra time you spend with your plants will pay off with beautiful, healthy plants.

You won't harm your plants by deadheading. You are simply removing the dead flower. If you leave the spent flower, the plant will begin to produce seeds. If the plant believes it has enough seed heads it will slow down it's growth and flower production. Deadheading your flowers interrupts this process. By removing the dead flowers the plant will start producing more flowers. Many flowering plants (especially annuals) will panic when deadheaded and produce even more flowers. The goal of the plant is to produce seeds and reproduce.

When you are deadheading your flowers, you are either pinching, cutting or shearing back the stems that have dead flowers on them. Once the flower starts to fade or is completely dried up is the perfect time to deadhead your flowers. The type of plant and the weather or temperature will determine how often you have to deadhead your plants.

I live in a cooler climate where average summer temperatures range from in the high to mid 80s during the day to a low in the 40s at night. I typically deadhead my hanging baskets at least twice a week and the container plants (because they are easier to reach) about 3 or 4 times a week. You need to determine how often you can deadhead your flowers depending on your free time and the amount of dead flowers on your plants.