dead heading flowers

How do we know when to chop a flower head off? My neighbour reckons wait until they look unsightly, but my horticulture books reckons you have to do it just before the flower head starts to wither otherwise it releases a chemical back into the plant to tell it that the job is done, and don't waste energy on new flowers.

If I go by the book, how do I know when the flower is about to wither? Surely that would be a skill reserved for mystic meg?

What do you lot do about dead heading?

 

I dead head when I can find the time

... but then I take off any heads that are have set seed already :( dead, dying, or will-have-died by the next time I can dead head

Sooner-rather-than-later is better, allowing for the fact that no doubt you would actually like to have some colour in your garden!

 

The only plants I dead head as such is lupins. I tend to cut the flower stalk off as soon as the bottom of the flower starts to go brown which is when it starts to look past its best.

Once that is done, I will usually get a 2nd flower stalk later on.

 

I dead head frequently, and early. As soon as blooms are past their best, they get nipped off. Seems to be working fine, all my flower containers are very heavy with blooms and I've been dead heading for 2 to 4 weeks now depending on the flowers.

 

I dead head whenever I notice it needs it-often when they are well past.

 

I try to dead head as soon as I see a flower has gone past it's best. It's rarely worth leaving them because you think it might be good for another few days - it just becomes a job for tomorrow.