July 26th

By Mutt Mulligan

Deadheading Do’s and Don’ts

‘Tis the season when pretty flowerbeds start to look a little worse for the wear thanks to the intense summer heat. With just a little work, however, your perennial plants can brighten right back up.

Deadheading – the process of removing the old, dried out blooms – not only cleans up the appearance of your flowering plants, it also keeps them from reseeding, and helps the plant spend more energy on root and vegetative growth and less on seed production.

Blooms should be removed as soon as a flower’s appearance starts to fade. To keep the maintenance task from being overwhelming, it’s recommended that you deadhead a little every day. Where you deadhead depends largely on the plant species. However, the general rule of thumb (a green one, of course!) is to prune the wilting flowers and stems back to the point where there is a new bud or leaf.