Deadheading: The Importance of Pruning Your Plants

Woman deadheading spent english rose hips in summer garden. Gardener cutting wilted flowers off with pruner. Abraham Darby rose by Austin

When we talk about pruning a plant, a term that is commonly brought up in the discussion is “deadheading”. This is the process of removing old blooms from the top of the stems of your plant to encourage new blooms to take their place. This could be done by hand or with gardening tools.

While this process could potentially allow some plants to have fresh blooms all season long, it could be potentially damaging to others.

Plants that love deadheading:

Zinnia
Cosmos
Petunias
Marguerite daisy

Plants that hate deadheading:

Astilbe
Begonias
Russian sage
Impatients

Be careful not to deadhead a plant too much at once. This could cause stress to the plants health. And remember that it is not a good idea to deadhead a plant that is already suffering from issues with sun exposure and/or watering schedule.