How to Deadhead Flowers

Deadhead Flowers: Deadheading refers to removing faded or dead flowers from plants. This practice helps maintain plant attractiveness and encourages additional blooms, whether in garden beds, containers or hanging baskets.

Reasons for Deadhead Flowers

Most flowers lose their appeal as they fade, detracting from the overall appearance of beds, borders, and containers. Deadhead Flowers, the removal of faded or dead flowers, helps maintain a better-looking display for longer.

Deadheading is the process of removing flowers from plants once they have faded or died. It enhances the plants’ appearance and encourages re-flowering.

Deadhead Flowers also:

• Directs energy into stronger growth and more flowers instead of (often unwanted) seed pods
• Prevents plants with numerous petals, such as peonies, some camellias, and many roses, from scattering old petals widely
• Prevents plants from self-seeding, particularly useful for plants that self-seed readily and can become a nuisance, such as common valerian (Valeriana officinalis), sea holly (Eryngium), and lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis)

When to Deadhead

Deadheading refers to the removal of spent flowers from plants to maintain their appearance and stimulate further blooming. Here are some guidelines:

• Deadhead frequently for plants that produce flowers quickly, such as summer bedding, ideally daily or every other day.
• For perennials, deadheading once a week is sufficient.
• For plants that have a short blooming period, like lilacs, deadheading once after they finish flowering is recommended.
• However, a short delay in deadheading will not significantly affect the plant’s flowering performance.

How to Deadhead

With Finger and Thumb The simplest method is to pinch or snap off faded blooms with finger and thumb, aiming to remove the flower with its stalk to keep the plant looking tidy.

With Secateurs, Scissors, or a Knife To deadhead plants with thick, tough, or stringy stems, use secateurs, scissors, or a knife. On most plants, trim away the spent flower, cutting back to just above the next bud or leaf on the stem.

For plants that produce heads of multiple flowers, such as delphiniums and lupins, pinch or trim off individual flowers (where practical) and then prune the entire head to just above a lower bud, leaf, side shoot, or to ground level, once all have finished. Some, like hardy geraniums, cat mint (Nepeta), and lady’s mantle (Alchemilla), will produce a second flush of flowers if cut back close to ground level after flowering. Others, such as pulmonaria and oriental poppies, can still be cut back but usually only produce fresh foliage.

Deadheading Different Garden Plants

Deadheading shouldn’t be a daunting task, and the vast majority of plants don’t need a special technique – it’s just a case of knowing where to pinch, snap or trim off the spent flowers:

Bedding Plants Tender plants growing in beds, containers, and hanging baskets respond well to deadheading. The faded blooms of argyranthemums, heliotrope, pansies, polyanthus, and petunias can be removed with finger and thumb, pinching off the flower and its stalk.

Pelargoniums Pinch off individual flowers and then use secateurs to remove whole clusters and the long flower stalk down to just above where it joins the main stem. Alternatively, grab hold of the flower stalk and pull downwards away from the main stem – the stalk should snap off cleanly.

Roses Gently snap the faded flowers off hybrid tea roses, breaking the stalk just below the head. This method encourages more blooms more quickly compared to cutting with secateurs. For other roses, snip off individual flowers or clusters of flowers down to just above the next leaf.

Shrubs The height of a shrub may make deadheading impractical, but examples of shrubs that benefit from deadheading are rhododendrons (and azaleas), camellias, lilacs (Syringa), and tree peonies. Use finger and thumb to pick or snap off each dead head where it joins the stem, or secateurs to cut just below the flower head. Take care to avoid damaging the new growth buds immediately below the flower.

Climbers Deadhead climbers where practical, particularly Eccremocarpus as it rapidly produces seed pods. Most have tough stems, so use secateurs to cut near the base of each flower stalk.

Bulbs Remove flowers from larger bulbs, such as daffodils, cutting or pinching through the flower stalk just behind the bulbous seed capsule. Leave the green flower stalk in place as this photosynthesises, helping to build up the bulb to flower well next season.

Do I Need to Deadhead?

Some obliging plants don’t need deadheading – those like fuchsias, bedding lobelias, and salvias either don’t set much seed or neatly deadhead themselves, saving you the task. Other examples where deadheading isn’t necessary include:

• Plants that produce seeds loved by birds, such as rudbeckias, cornflowers, and sunflowers
• Plants that produce decorative and bird-friendly hips or berries, such as many species and rambler roses, many Viburnum, and Amelanchier
• Plants that have ornamental seedheads, such as love-in-a-mist (Nigella), stinking iris (Iris foetidissima), honesty (Lunaria annua), and Chinese lantern (Physalis alkekengi)
• Plants that produce such an abundance of flowers, making deadheading impractical, such as Deutzia, Spiraea, Thalictrum, many asters, alyssum (Lobularia maritima), and trailing campanula
• Plants that are difficult to reach safely, such as many trees and vigorous climbers – not deadheading those like Clematis montana and climbing hydrangea won’t significantly affect their display
• Where you want plants to self-seed or plan to collect seed for later sowing