Storm damaged flowers

It rained yesterday in Sheffield [understatement]. We got a month's worth of rain in 12 hours according to the news, although I didn't need the news to tell me how heavy it was. Roads quickly became rivers, drain covers became fountains, and my garden became a scene of carnage.

Some of my flowers had some or all of their petals knocked off by the force of the rain, some flower stems were bent down, others snapped.

The sun is out now and my washed out oriental poppies are starting to perk up a bit, but the flowers that were physically battered in obviously won't perk up. So my question is this: Do I go out and chop off all the battered in flower heads? It's not quite a case of dead heading as they are damaged rather than simply spent. Its just that some of them still look quite nice, just minus half their petals. Should I wait til they fade naturally or just lop them off?

Also, interestly, the only flowers that are not showing any ill effects from the washout are the marigolds. As these torrential downpours seem to be becoming more common, anyone know any nice flowers that will take such punishment?

 

I would "dead head" anything that has "had it" - leave anything that is still putting on a show.

 

Thanks guys. I'll go out there in a bit.

 

I think we got the backend of that Sheffield rain yesterday, but apart from a battered pea stalk all is looking well this morning..

 

A thought has just occurred to me. In England when we get rain like yesterday's, it is a news worthy event. One time when the wife and I were on holiday on Zakynthos, Greece, a storm started brewing. Bar/Restaurant staff were frantically running about bringing furniture in, putting shutters over windows, securing tarpaulins over anything that had to be left outside. We went to one bar last thing at night, sat outside drinking cocktails in the warm evening air. The proprietor kept coming out and looking at the sky with a very worried look on his face. I asked him what the big deal was, and this was his reply: "You know when it rains very heavy in England and you think it is a storm?", to which I replied 'Yes', he said "well we consider that to be not even a light spray". I helped him pack his stuff away at the end of the night and we got a taxi back to our apartment. No sooner had we got in when there was a sudden very loud and continuous roar. I went out onto the balcony and it just looked like some mysterious force had lifted the entire Mediterranean sea into the air, and let it go all at once.

 

Much like the monsoon downpours in Malaysia.
Power showered in about 2 seconds..

 

Yes, my peonies which only opened two days ago took a bashing-and no amount of dead heading will bring those back. I'm gutted, so now I look to my roses.