Dead-heading

Nasturtiums don't care if you dead head or not. They just keep going and going until the frost comes. If you want them to be more colourful though, cut some of the upper leaves away. Most of the flowers form underneath this canopy of leaves, so cutting the top leaves away reveals them in all their glory.

Also, when dead-heading in general, I always take it from the stem just below the flower head. Simply removing the petals (which have served their purpose and are being jettisoned by the plant anyway) wont stop the hormone activity going on in the flower head that tells the plant to divert all available energy to seed production.

 

I find the deadheading of the likes of my senetti's, petunias, dahlias, geums, gazanias, begonias, geraniums etc..... not only does it look tidier but it does produce more flowers by putting all their energy into more blooms rather than spent flower heads.

 

I find it very relaxing strangely enough and it will prolong the flowering season on most annuals. It helps to encourage them with a bit of plant food as a reward,
Jenny

 

The whole purpose of a flower is to produce seeds... By deadheading it stops the energy being sent to produce the seeds and the energy is transferred to developing flowers

 

You need to remove the forming seed head. In some cases it is worth a light "prune" to a suitable bud to encourage further development, or just to make the plant look tidy - for example on plants that carry multiple flowers (some types of Roses, Peonies, and so on) I initially remove the main flower head (I usually just snap it off behind the flower, leaving a bit of stalk) to leave the ancillary buds to open and flower, but then when they are done I use secateurs to remove the whole flower structure and stem and, if appropriate, prune back to a suitable bud. On Aquilegias I remove the whole of the flowering spike back to the lower leaves - just so it looks tidy.

But the main thing is to remove the forming seed head so plant diverts energy to more flowers, or to "Bulk up" for next year (e.g. for bulbs such as Daffodils or Lilies).

Some plants are too much of a nightmare to bother deadheading though - depends on time and patience, to an extent! I have some Fuschia plants that have billions of flowers on them, and deadheading them is a labour of love. However, once they start to form "berries" I do take those off.

 

A basket or container of pansies/violas is always worth "that labour of love" IMO,
Jenny