Not just a name for fans of the iconic band, The Grateful Dead, gardeners should know what “deadhead” means, too.
If you’re trying to create a flower garden successfully, there are many techniques and tricks that you’ll need to use. One of the most important is how to deadhead flowers to ensure that your flowers are growing healthy and strong.
In this guide, we’ll tell you about deadheading and how you can do it in your garden.
What Does Deadheading Flowers Mean?
When you deadhead flowers, you will be removing the dead or faded flower heads from your flower plants.
While deadheading isn’t required, there are many benefits of doing it. One of the main benefits is that it will help to improve the plant’s appearance and make your flower garden look much better.
However, deadheading will also allow the energy and strength that a plant would use to generate new seeds to generate more flowers instead. This strengthens your plant and allows it to grow fuller than it would have otherwise.
How to Deadhead Flowers
Fortunately, the process of how to remove dead flower heads is very simple and easy. All that you’ll need to do is to take note if a flower fades and goes out of bloom.
You’ll then want to cut between the flower head and the first set of healthy leaves on the plant. However, the exact point of the cut may change depending on the plant you’re cutting.
When making the cut, it can be helpful to use a pruning tool. This can help you make sure that the cut is clean and done in an aesthetically pleasing way. However, some plants can simply be pinched instead.
After you have deadheaded your plants, be sure to clean up. Collect any blooms that are on the ground and dispose of them or put them in your compost pile.
Gardening can be difficult. If you’ll be growing flowers on your own for the first time, you may not want to use them to create bouquets. If you need to send a bouquet, you may want to send these flowers instead.
Which Plants Need Deadheading?
Many different flowers can benefit from deadheading, but not all of them need it. Some flowers will drop flower heads on their own after they are done blooming and others simply won’t bloom again anyway, even if you deadhead them.
Begonia and vincas will both drop flower heads on their own. Other flowers that don’t need deadheading include angelonias, nemesias, lantanas, and bidens. This also includes some types of zinnias.
Some flowers that you’ll commonly want to deadhead include zinnias, cosmos, marigolds, hollyhocks, roses, bee balms, snapdragons, and sweet peas. You’ll want to do some research on any particular flower plants that you’re growing in your garden to find out whether they should be deadheaded or not.
Final Thoughts
If you want to grow a successful flower garden, you should learn how to deadhead flowers in the right way. Deadheading flowers is very simple and easy but can help to improve the appearance of your flowers and allow them to grow stronger and fuller than before.
Need more helpful flower care and gardening tips? Read over our blog now to discover more useful articles and guides.
