Hanging baskets, planter boxes and perennial gardens that are bursting with color are seldom planted in spring and left untouched until autumn. Deadheading, pruning, trimming and pinching are all techniques that gardeners can use to get that perfect look all season long. While it may be intimidating, this simple task can result in a huge visual impact with only a little effort.
Through a series of pruning techniques, we manipulate our perennials and annuals to give us the most beauty we can get out of them in such a short season. It is important to recognize that cutting healthy flowers or shoots can help plants in the long term – no matter how much it may pain us as gardeners to do so. Deadheading is a widespread practice where gardeners remove flowers that have gone by.
One of the first things to become aware of is the difference between a bud and a spent bloom on the plant you are working on. Many gardeners will snip petunia buds, mistaking them for spent flowers. It is important to be vigilant with these cuts.
Remember that your plant’s goal is to reproduce, and they use flowers to do so. By removing the flowers, you are stopping the plant from producing seed and encouraging it to restart the cycle – meaning more flowers for you. Some gardeners will select “self-cleaning” varieties of annuals that will shed their flowers without the need to deadhead all summer long.
In general, these may not produce seed; therefore can easily restart the process themselves. The .