How to Deadhead Flowers

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

Deadhead Flowers

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A flowering plant's goal is to set seed. If you repeatedly deadhead - trim off the spent flowers - the plant goes into overdrive, putting out more and more flowers in an effort to reproduce.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Step1

Deadhead when a flower starts to brown, wither, shatter or otherwise go downhill.

Step2

Deadhead tall flowers that sit atop long, slender stems by cutting the stem at the base of the plant.

Step3

Trim bushy plants with many small flowers with handheld grass shears or small hedge clippers. Trim the whole plant at once - even if there are still some nice flowers - rather than trying to tediously trim one flower at a time.

Step4

Deadhead other plants by simply snapping or pinching off the flowers with your hand or cut them off with garden shears, a knife or scissors.

Step5

Treat annuals and perennials that have dying or ragged foliage by cutting back (shortening) the foliage by one-third to two-thirds. Do this either when the plant has stopped blooming or when it starts to get that overall 'ratty' look. They'll usually send out a new flush of healthy, fresh foliage with flowers.

Tips & Warnings

Plants respond differently to deadheading, depending on climate, variety, rainfall and other variables. Experiment. Take comfort in the fact that in most cases, the worst you can do is give them a bad haircut. It's almost impossible to kill a plant by deadheading.

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Comments

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 Cut just behind the first 5-leaf sprout to remove the dead head and promote new growth.

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 Don't throw away those deadheaded flowers! Let them dry out, then carefully inspect the flowerhead for new seeds. You can plant them and have even *more* beautiful flowers.
(Read the plant tags. Some will not permit you to propagate.)

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