I am a new gardener and confused by the term
deadheading. Do I deadhead
everything that blooms in my garden?
How far should I cut back the plants?
Removing faded flowers,
called deadheading, can help promote repeat bloom throughout the season. Some flowers like impatiens are self
cleaning, dropping their spent petals and producing new blooms, without any
help from you. Removing fading
flowers of fuchsia and lantana will prevent the plants from going to seed and
encourage more blooms. Some
perennials like salvias will put on a longer flower show with the help of
deadheading while others like peonies and perennial geranium won't. Deadheading these plants is done only
to produce a tidier look, not more flowers in the garden. The type of flower (spike, panicle, umbel) will influence
where you make your cut. In
general remove the stem of faded blooms back to the first set of healthy leaves
or nearby flower buds. Leggy
plants can be cut back further into the leafy stem to encourage fuller growth
as well as more flowers.