Deadheading 

Just before we begin, let me disclose that even though this articles is titled as ‘a guide to dead heading’ and that this seems like a gothic topic, that deadheading has nothing to do with dark themes, metal music or after life elements. Deadheading, in gardening terms, refers to the action of removing a flower, or head, from the plant once it has died. This simple process is a common method practiced in gardening and all gardeners of flower producing plants as well as flourished should be highly encouraged to study and learn how to effectively deadhead their plants. Although this work may seem tedious and boring, it is very useful for many different reasons. If you would like to boost your garden into a wonderland of healthy plants, read this article of what is deadheading.

About deadheading.

Why we use the method of deadheading?

The practice of deadheading flowers has existed for many years. This practice became popular after farmers, gardeners, and florists learned about its many beneficial properties. If you look at this standard practice for an aesthetic point of view for example, the reason seems quite obvious. Any person would know that a living flower is much prettier to look at than a dead one and thus, by removing the dead flower, peoples eyes will be pulled towards the plants overall beauty instead. Secondly, as a flower dies, the plants growth power transfers from overall maintenance of the plant to seed production. Therefor, by removing the seeds, the plant refocuses it’s power to its personal maintenance and growth, which allows it to not only keep growing and stay healthy, but also to grow bigger and faster as well as stronger, healthier and more resistant to bad weather, harmful pests and crippling diseases. Also, a dead flower can quickly accumulate illness and rot which might possibly injure the rest of the healthy plant. As another benefit from dead heading, is that by removing the seeds you are preventing them from falling off of the flowers carpel and potentially lodging themselves into your gardens soil. Although one good thing about seed production and collection in general is that you can preserve the seeds to reproduce more plants is that by controlling where to plant the seeds you can better manage your gardens layout to make sure that each seed will be planted properly in the right conditions. This is important as improper planting could lead to the downfall of a new plant such as a weak root system, poor immunity against pests, weather and diseases and stunted growth in insufficient soil varieties, moisture levels and sunlight exposure. You will also avoid misplaced plants from competing with other plants in your garden for nutrients if they are placed too close together. There is spacing recommendations on seed packages for a reason after all.

How to deadhead a plant

Although the term dead heading seems daunting, it actually isn’t. The process of deadheading is very simple and quick.

Step 1. Selecting your flower

As a gardener, it is important to check up on your plants constantly and consistently. When you check on your plants daily, make sure to notice their moisture levels, growth and development, soil conditions, leaf health, flower health, fruit health, sunlight exposed, damage if there is any as well as possible problems like pests and diseases. These daily rendezvous allow you to keep a close eye on the overall health of your plant and allow you to understand their road to maturity. If you see a wilted flower, then make a note of its location on the plant and get ready to deadhead it.

Step 2. Your tools.

Once you have noticed your dead flower, record it’s position on the plant so that you will be able to find it or mark it off from the rest of the plant. After this, you should prepare your tools. For the process of deadheading, any object with a sharp edge will do job effectively such as a knife or a pair of scissors.

Step 3. Deadheading your flower

Now you have your tools and your plant. To begin, firmly grab your dead flower and move it away from the rest of the living plant. Next, take your scissors and cut off the dead flower. The cut should be between the dead flower to the first set of still healthy leaves on the stem of the plant.

Step 4. The aftermath.

Congratulations! You have successfully dead headed your plant! After you have cut off the dead flower, rearrange the rest of your living plant back to its original position to ensure continuous growth. As a final step, you should discard your dead flower head far away from your garden to avoid having its seeds scatter and insert themselves into your soil. On the other hand, you can collect the seeds from your dead flowers head and save them for further planting if you want.

When not to deadhead

Wait, you just sold me with the explanations and descriptions on the many benefits of deadheading, but now you’re telling me that I shouldn’t be doing this practice instead?! Why? Well, this is true my attentive readers. Let us state it for the sake of clarity that not all flowers need to be deadheaded. Some flowers, for example the sunflower, are quite prized for their seed production and therefor if the process of deadheading were used on these flower species, it would actually diminish their overall value. In addition, certain flowers such as fuchsias, salvias and lobelias don’t require you to manually practice the method of deadheading on them due to the fact that they produce minimal to no seeds after reaching old age, as well as often deadheading themselves. Likewise, some flowers might be to weak to survive the process of deadheading. Also, plants whose flowers turn into fruit, such as strawberries, zucchini, tomatoes, and pumpkins to name a few, should not be deadheaded as this process might damage the individual fruit as well as the overall crop yield. If you are unsure about these guidelines on what plants should be deadheaded and what plants should not be deadheaded, you can just follow the rule of ‘when in doubt, leave it out’.

Tips on the practice of dead heading before you get cutting.

Before you grab your shears and start whacking away at your dead flowers, there are just a few more tips that should be mentioned. To start off with, some flowers, you can take roses or peonies as an example, that have many petals can benefit more to the process of deadheading just the dead petals and not dead heading the whole flower head. To add on, the process of dead heading should only be done with a sharp object that can make clean cuts and not with fingers or fingernails as some amateur gardens do as a mistake. This is because when you use a blunt tip object to make a cut, you will ultimately be leaving a messy cut on a damaged stem which could prevent future blooms on that plant is a perennial species. Also, you don’t automatically have to throw away the dead flower head after you have dead headed it! There are many ways in which you could use dead flowers such as harvesting the seeds to plant more flowers, feeding birds with the seeds or eating them yourself if they are edible, turning the flower into compost to feed your garden, preserving the leaves to make pot pouring in order to freshen up your home or even pressing the flowers between heavy objects for beautiful artwork, or unique stationary. We encourage you to be creative and have fun.

When to deadhead your plant.

When beginner gardeners learn about dead heading and the fact that they should be doing this process, it’s common for some anxiety and dread to rise up. A common question asked by first time gardeners in the topic of dead heading is “how will I know when it’s time to deadhead my plant?” This inquiry often comes up from the planters nervousness about accidentally cutting off a still living flower head before it has reached its time to die. It makes sense as well. You worked so hard to let your plant grow and you probably also got very excited when it developed its first bud and it blossomed into a gorgeous flower with colourful petals. Sadly, however, it is a commonly known fact that nothing can last forever and this includes your flowers. You don’t want your hard work to go to waste though, and you definitely don’t want to harm your plant or kill its beauty before its time. So how do you know when it’s time to bring out the sharp objects? Luckily, as you progress as a gardener through time and get to develop a deep understanding of your plants, you will be able to gain a sense of comfort in knowing when your flower needs to be deadheaded. Until you reach that pivotal milestone, sorry not! As a general rule of thumb, a flower should be deadheaded once it’s petals start to fall off of the carpel and onto the dirt below.

There you have it! A full and complete guide to what is deadheading. Although it’s no gardeners favourite chore in their garden and it also needs to be done constantly, deadheading is an important activity that all florists should do in order to have a beautiful, healthy, and long lasting garden. We hope that you found this article useful and we wish you the best on your current growing season. Happy deadheading!