Off With Her Head! Or, Deadheading Plants

Design and InstallationGarden Caregarden TriviaPlant Health Care
Written By Peter Morris

Perhaps the Queen of Hearts would have said it about the Queen of Flowers but we will never know! 

A rosebud

Deadheading

It is of course the practice of removing spent flowers to promote more new flowers. By doing so you redirect all the energy it would have made into seeds back into the plant itself.  

Deadheading spent flowers

Why

The science behind dead heading is quite simple. Inside the seeds there are embryos which are producing hormones which suppress flowering. From the plants point of view : I have seeds now for the future so I don't need more flowers to make more seeds”.

A poppy pod full of seeds !

By removing the spent flowers and seeds within we take away the suppression and thus we get more blooms. 

And of course everybody wants more flowers in their gardens  – more more more !  Well -except for those gardeners who actually want to harvest the seeds to plant next season !

One time bloomers

Not all plants bloom throughout the summer - many in fact bloom only once in a season. Lilies are a common one time bloomer.  Deadheading simply makes for a stronger plant overall.

In The Netherlands, it is also done on young Tulips before they actually bloom.  This promotes larger bulbs which can be harvested and sold in the fall. Those bulbs will be stronger.

A word of Caution

Many plants bloom only after having accumulated enough sugar to trigger the bloom cycle. If we remove too much there wont be enough stored sugar available to bloom and it will shoot out more leaves instead!

This is extremely true of roses.  It is important to only remove the spent flower - only one or two leaflets below the flower.

That said - if you want to harvest rose buds to make tea - then never deadhead !

Rose hips

We constantly dead head our clients gardens so they can enjoy more flowers !

PLANT SPECIALISTS

GREENING NEW YORK FOR OVER 52 YEARS !

Article written by our Staff Horticulturist, Peter B Morris, BSc, MSc, MBA

All photographs used with permission @SHUTTERSTOCK

Peter Morris

Peter was born and raised on a beautiful green island in the midst of a tropical rainforest. He was introduced into the world of plants at the age of six when his grandmother, an avid Spanish gardener herself, asked him to help her grow seeds for her pepper garden. He was hooked! By the time he was a teen, he had his own rose and orchid collection numbering in the hundreds. Botany was in his blood, and that is what he set out to study.

His passion brought him to NY in the late seventies to further his education. His tenacity allowed him to work full time at Plant Specialists while he completed a MS in Plant Biology. As a manager at the time he felt unsatisfied with his knowledge of business and business processes. Peter felt compelled to learn, so he then pursued and completed an MBA in Quality Management within a few short years.

Peter’s other passion is teaching. His natural ability is quickly consumed by our staff in all subjects in Botany, Horticulture, and Landscaping. He created an immense reference library of more than 3,500 plants providing an invaluable resource for our staff.

Peter’s breadth of knowledge and wisdom allows him to effectively diagnose the needs of plants. Sometimes just by walking into a garden he can create a prescription that fixes even the hardest issue. He is our Staff Botanist, Diagnostician, and all around Mentor. Recently, he has put his immense knowledge and skills into developing a new department that focuses on Plant Healthcare. As he puts it, “Magic through Science”. The PHC staff that surround him have avidly consumed his teachings. Substantially developing their own plant wisdom, many have taken on difficult plant health issues with spectacular results.

Plant Healthcare has been an instant success with customers! The proper treatment of insects and diseases including Organic methods has made pest control a necessity for every plant. Correcting hormonal imbalances caused by planting in containers or refurbishing soils leached of nutrients by irrigation systems are big challenges PHC has become quite comfortable addressing. The scientific approach to the complex demands of keeping plants healthy in our harsh city environment has made many a customer say WOW!

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