How, When, and Why You Need to Deadhead Your Flowers

Deadheading is an essential part of caring for flowering plants and a step that is sometimes overlooked. While some people deadhead their plants to keep them looking nice, there are other important reasons behind the practice.
What Is Deadheading and Why Is it Important?
Deadheading is the act of removing dead flowers from a plant after it has bloomed. There are a few different reasons why this is an essential step in caring for your plants.
  • Removing the spent flowers encourages new buds to develop, and your plant may bloom a second time.
  • Removing the spent flowers encourages your plant to grow, creating a fuller, bushier plant.
  • Removing the spent flowers eliminates the chance the dead blossoms will become infected with a fungal or bacterial disease or become a home for insect pests.
When You Should Deadhead Flowers
You can deadhead flowers at any time during the growing season. Some gardeners like to remove the blossoms as soon as they begin to fade, and others like them to dry up completely before removing them from the plants.
For plants that produce multiple flowers on a single stem, like salvia or delphinium, remove the entire spike when at least 70% of the blossoms have faded.
How to Deadhead Spent Blossoms
Deadheading is easy, but it can be time-consuming if your flower bed has many plants in it or many plants with multiple flowers.
Once flowers have faded, if the stems are thin, you can use your fingernails to pinch them off of the plant. For plants with thicker stems, use a pair of sterilized gardening shears with a sharp blade to cut them off the stem.
Are There Flowers That Don’t Need Deadheading?
Some plants are known to be “self-cleaning,” which means that after the blossoms fade, the plant naturally detaches them, and they fall to the ground. These plants don’t need to be deadheaded as they do it themselves.
  • Vince
  • Begonias
  • Sedum
  • Lantana
  • Baptistia
  • Astilbe
  • Lobelia
  • Joe Pye Weed
  • Siberian Iris