What gardener can resist a gentle stroll on a warm summer’s evening, armed with secateurs and an inviting glass of wine, snipping off spent blooms to show off the fresh burgeoning ones. Deadheading is very satisfying. It can sometimes stimulate a fresh flush of flowers and always improves appearance.
Fading, spent flowers look messy and mar the effect of their fresh successors. I wouldn’t want the gorgeous lemony flowers of my Alchymist rose to be ruined by a neighbour’s fading creamy petals let alone solid brown lump of dead petals. This soggy mess can so easily rot newly forming buds.
You owe it to yourselves and your favourite plants to keep them clean and healthy. Like pruning, it’s so absorbing and rewarding that you’re released from all your daily worries. Deadheading is good for your mental health .
It’s also often claimed that when tidying plants by removing tired old blooms you’re encouraging a flush of new ones. This may not always happen. Roses, for example, initiate the formation of buds in late autumn and early winter, with more potential buds started at that stage than may actually develop.
The spring’s longer days and higher temperatures enable bud growth, leading to single or multiple flushes during summer and autumn. Some research has shown that if the first flush of these flowers can produce seed, other potential ones don’t get going. But if a flower is removed earlier than this, another may be triggered by its gibberellin hormones into gro.