The Beginner’s Guide to the Art of Deadheading Flowers

Tips for deadheading flowers

• Clean tools make for clean cuts. Dirty, rusty gardening tools can spread fungus and disease, and even your hands can transfer infection to plants. Clean the tools and wash your hands before you start working in the garden.
• Not all plants need deadheading. Some will thrive when you deadhead them and some will suffer. Know your plants and what is best for them.
• Don’t shock your plants: When a flower is cut off, the plant senses a wound and releases chemicals to seal it and protect itself. This process takes a lot of energy. Don’t cut off too many flowers to avoid your plant going into shock. It is better to deadhead a bit at a time, spread out over days, as opposed to stripping the plants of all their flowers and forcing them to overwork.
• How often? Deadheading your flowers and plants should be done frequently. Be aware of not deadheading when it is too hot or the plants are stressed due to a lack of water. It is best to water your plants the day before you plan to deadhead or trim to allow the water to seep up through the whole plant. You want to deadhead a healthy, well-hydrated plant.

Identify wilted flowers

Identify faded or wilted flowers. Deadheading can be done once you see the flower start to wilt.

Deadhead the flower with pruning shears

Once you have identified which flower you want to remove, be judicious about where you cut.  Look down the stem below the faded flower, if there are dead leaves, remove those as well and cut where the stem is green, and the leaves look healthy.

Always use clean pruning shears to cut off the flowers. Some people like to pinch off the flowers by hand, but this can contaminate your plant with harmful bacteria.

Research the specific flower or plant you are deadheading to confirm that it will benefit from the pruning or trim and verify where it is best to cut. Here is where to deadhead a few common flowers:

• Roses: Cut the stem at a downward angle just above where the rose has five healthy leaves on one little branch.
• Hydrangeas: Cut just below the faded flower and above healthy leaves or other blooms in process.
• Petunias: Cut right below the base of the flower
• Geraniums:  Cut further down the stem above a joint where new growth begins
• Tulips and Daffodils:  Cut the flower further down the stem above the leaves.  Be sure to not cut off the leaves as they will gather sunlight and energy to fortify the bulbs for the next season.  Once the leaves have turned yellow and started to dry up, you may cut the leaves off.

FAQ

Does deadheading produce more flowers?

Generally, yes. Many annuals and perennials will continue blooming throughout the growing season if they are deadheaded regularly.

What happens if you don’t deadhead flowers?

For those flowers that will benefit from deadheading, if you don’t deadhead them, they will move from their flowering cycle to the seed-producing cycle and then possibly into the end-of-life cycle. Deadheading will prolong the life of your flowers and plants.

When is a good time to start deadheading flowers?

Each type of flower has a different timeline for benefiting from deadheading. Deadheading is recommended as soon as a flower wilts and starts dying off.

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