I understand the concept of deadheading, to signal to the plant that you don't want it to put its energies into seedmaking yet, but I'm confused about just where to make the cut when you deadhead. When you remove the spent flower, do you remove the little cup ((is it the sepal?) it's growing out of? Say, on a petunia: the blossom is spent; do you just slip out the bloom (they usually just fall out) or do you snip the stem just below the sepals? And my stokes aster: the spent bloom just falls off its base, nice and neat. Should I cut off that base? Another new aster blossom isn't going to form there, is it? And roses, where do you cut the stem to remove the flower head? Help? Anyone? Maybe I'm just overthinking it (I seem to do that a lot!).
Deadheading 101: Need a teacher!!
Well, it depends on the plant. Some plants won't rebloom regardless of deadheading. And some plants (especially hybrids) don't form viable seeds, at least without cross-pollination, so deadheading is irrelevant. Some plants continue to rebloom even without deadheading. So maybe you're not overthinking it :-)
As for your questions... petunias - they have a lot of flowers, deadheading would be a real chore and probably not make much difference. But in general, to ensure no seed formation you'd need to sever the stem at or below the base of the flower. For roses I think the general advice is to cut at the next fully-formed leaf below the flower.
Hi,
You have to clip below the sepals which usually cup the ovum. I do that with pretty much everything. For flowers that grow in clumps on a single spike like petunias, I clip off individual flowers once spent until they have all bloomed then clip the spike, close to the base. That will encourage new lateral growth.
For plants I want seed from, I start around the end of July, beginning of August and let the flowers go to seed. In our zone, that's usually plenty of time for seed pods to mature.
X
Thanks Tom and X!! Good info.....
Thea: What Tom says about petunias is true. There's alot of deadheading to do, but I have found it does improve the length of their blooming time. Especially in the heat. And with some, like the "wave" varieties, you can cut back several inches of stem pretty often during the season and they'll keep goin'
Deb
Yup Deb, I'm spending a whole lot of time deadheading petunias, but I'm finding it's worth it, they seem to be doing good!!!! I think I'm discovering though, with my first Southern summer, why so many of our neighbors have only shrubs, minimal flowers. That sun is so intense!!! I deadhead and weed for a little while, and then run inside to the a/c; in and out all day. We're learning a lot, and loving it!!!!