deadheading

Hi
when deadheading bedding plants should I be just pulling or cutting with clippers (can't spell secoters)
I know roses need clippers but non woody plants?

Cheers
D

 

I don't think it really matters Exlabman. The principle of deadheading is that when a flower has been pollinated it starts to produce chemicals that say to the rest of the plant - "now that I'm pregnant, our future generations are assured so you don't need to bother any more with the makeup and fine clothes" :D.

By removing the ovule, where the seeds are being produced, you stop these chemical messages being sent out, and the plant will continue to flower. How much more you cut off is a matter of taste. The reason for cutting off extra is that the flower stalk, once the ovule has been removed, will die back to the main stem and will look unsightly. How and how much extra you remove it is up to you.

With some plants like Geraniums (ie Pelargoniums) the flower stalks break off naturally where they join the main stem so pulling is the best method, but many things don't.

 

Mostly I just snap off the dead flowers with my hand. I tried this with Roses one season (as it was the advice I read from RHS or somesuch) and decided it was a disaster - the Roses second-crop was far too tall as a consequence, and I didn't like the formation of the flower heads, so I have reverting to dead-heading Roses with secateurs and performing a "light prune" as part of that process (although I still snap the heads off if they look a mess as I am walking past and not properly tooled-up for the job!)

 

Kristen - I can't think that your dead heading technique could make any difference to the height or flower head formation of the second crop. I would have thought that the worst effect of bad deadheading was to leave little black dead stalks.

However there is an arguement that what the plants needs is a good pruning rather than just deadheading.

 

I expect my explanation didn't convey the nuance and our perspective on how the experiment had gone at the end of the season.

I can't now remember where I read about the "New Way" of dead-heading Roses whereby the spent flower heads were just snapped off, rather than lightly-pruned-back (although I'm fairly sure that it was on this forum that I was first alerted to the New Way). From memory it was during the 2009 season.

Anyways, we did it with our Floribundas on the terrace by the house. Imagine a stem with 4 or 5 flowers on it. You can either break off the 5 heads, or you cut-back to a strong bud just below where the stem breaks to make the 5 individual flowers (which is actually a multi-head, if you get my drift?).

So what we got was more growth, on top of, or alongside, the first-crop multi-head. This was not very strong, and flopped about a bit, but also was excessively tall (compared to the first-crop)

I like my Roses, but I'm no specialist, and my wife much less so. But the two of us universally hated the result.

So the next season we reverted to secateurs and cutting back to the first strong bud under the multi-head, which means waiting a bit longer for the strong new stem to develop and create the second-flush perhaps? but the resulting flowering head seemed much more "appropriate" and "balanced" to us, and we much preferred the overall shape of the plants etc.

So that's what we have done cine

But I still snap-off dead head when I see them - whether on Roses, or other plants.

 

Kristen - thanks for the explanation. I have to say I am not a rose man - I don't like things that bite. So I don't even understand the problems that roses raise.

On the subject of cutting back, I have heard that shears are just as good as precision pruning - but perhaps that's a different question.

 

I Do Not use Secateurs when dead heading Bedding Plant's. Fortunately i play Guitar, and my Thumb Nail and Forefinger nail are @ 1/2 inch long :D. you could say Multi-Purpose :D. Dead Heading Roses, different kettle of fish . I use Gloves and Secateurs i have had too many Cuts and Abrasions in the Past trying to dead head Roses by hand. if you are giving the roses a nice clean angle cut, 'then all should be suffice using your Secateurs. I Personally just cut below the Flower that you want to tidy. .

Works For Me :thumb:.

 

I do that for the Winter haircut - just to cut them back half way so they don't rock about in the wind (actually I use secateurs, but without precision, and a hedge trimmer would do!)

But I am fussy about the Spring prune, and do that carefully selecting which bud to favour etc (and rubbing out the occasional, badly placed, bud that does not fit in with my view of how things should be!)