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I don't know why, but deadheading makes me nervous. I keep thinking I'm doing it wrong. I bought a large number of coreopsis and I understand they'll keep blooming if I deadhead them. So that means pluck the spent blooms off and leave the stems, right? Or am I supposed to cut the stems?
i usually snip to the first set of leaves on the flower stem, but i have done 'mass behedding' on some by taking garden sheres and lopping the top 1" off the entire plant (this works better on smaller plants) and they keep comming back that way too
The one little main stem sticking up looks pretty silly to me so , if I deadhead single stems, I do it down to a set of leaves. Most with as many flowers as I have I usually wait till most of the flowers are spent and I wack with the weed eater. This may cut off some buds but it keeps the plant from getting too leggy and in no time the whole plant will be blooming again. I can usually get 3 or 4 bloomings in my NC garden.
Are you talking about pinching them back to make them fuller or deadheading them in the fall? Neither seems like a big deal but I guess if you have enough of them it could be!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caladium
I don't know why, but deadheading makes me nervous. I keep thinking I'm doing it wrong. I bought a large number of coreopsis and I understand they'll keep blooming if I deadhead them. So that means pluck the spent blooms off and leave the stems, right? Or am I supposed to cut the stems?
It seems you are not alone, a lot of people have a big fear of dead heading and pruning. Please don't "pluck" as you can end up up-rooting the plant or breaking more delicate stems. The best way is with garden shears (although many a gardener has relied on her fingernails in a pinch LOL).
Quote:
Originally Posted by no kudzu
The one little main stem sticking up looks pretty silly to me so , if I deadhead single stems, I do it down to a set of leaves. Most with as many flowers as I have I usually wait till most of the flowers are spent and I wack with the weed eater. This may cut off some buds but it keeps the plant from getting too leggy and in no time the whole plant will be blooming again. I can usually get 3 or 4 bloomings in my NC garden.
^^ What she says. Most of the time I use the shears and dead head down to one of three things depending on the plant: the main part of the plant, or the next emerging bud or the next set of leaves on the stem where new growth will start from. Some plants, like certain dianthus, do best if they get a "haircut" and get whacked back at one level across. It's also a PITA to try and trim hundreds of tiny little flowers.
Dead heading does in the long run produce more flowers. The reasoning behind it is that many plants are trying like crazy to do one thing: reproduce. Every time you cut off the flower before it can go to seed the plant feels obligated to make more of what makes it seeds: flowers.
When it comes to where you cut off the flower it is most often a matter of looks. The plant still needs to look appealing even if it has fewer flowers on it. If you snip them so there are stems sticking out all over like a an ugly porcupine it doesn't appeal to many gardeners so the "standard" advice is to cut back to where the stem is no longer visible. If you want to combine pruning with deadheading it may matter more since this will be for shaping as well as more flowers. This is something you might worry about with roses for example.
I have 6 mums. If I deadhead, I get several sets of flowers per year. In fact, I probably need to do it very soon. LOL.
It's a much bigger pain to deadhead my dianthus plants, of which I have several varieties. They need it even more often or they stop blooming on me.
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