Faded Flowers? Cut Them Down for These 6 Reasons
Flower deadheading, or removing wilted flowers, is not exactly the most complicated gardening task. However, if you have a lot of pots or a large garden, it can take quite a bit of time. However, if you do it regularly, you will be rewarded with a garden that stays beautiful for much longer and offers color until the first frost.
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Plants produce flowers to reproduce. As a gardener, you are of course very happy with an exuberant flowering, but as soon as seeds are formed, the flower festival is quickly over and plants lose their growth power. The answer is to cut flowers.
Don't feel like continuing to cut flowers? Read 6 good reasons to motivate you to keep doing it, because it's the way to extend the flower festival!
Take a pair of scissors into the garden and check all your potted flowers and garden flowers a few times a week for wilted flowers. Cut them away as soon as you find them, so that the leaves do not fall unflatteringly onto your plants. An added bonus: you can enjoy all that beauty in your garden up close every time.
By continuing to cut off flowers as they fade, your plant will put its energy into producing more flowers instead of seeds. This will keep your plant blooming for much longer. If you are going on holiday , do this job extra well just before you leave. When you return home, you will be greeted with lots of new flowers.
Remove any unsightly flowers from annual bedding plants such as petunias,pelargoniums and busy lizzies before the petals fall to the leaves. Wet leaves stick to the foliage and can rot – resulting in unsightly brown spots. Shake the plants when they are dry so that the loose leaves fall from the foliage.
- Growing and sowing tips for the most beautiful cut flowers
- Do's and don'ts from experienced growers
- With handy annual calendar
Once flowers are pollinated, they develop seeds or fruits when the petals fall off. This is the signal for plants to stop putting their energy into producing new flowers. Sweet peas ( Lathyrus ) in particular produce pods very quickly after flowering. So keep picking these flowers for a vase and remove wilted flowers immediately.
Perennial flower bulbs such as lilies need some time to provide their bulbs with enough energy after flowering to be able to flower abundantly again next year. If they have to use their energy after flowering to produce seeds, it is not good for the bulb. So cut off the flowers as soon as their petals fall off.
