Deadheading is an important part of perennial gardening. Deadheading some perennials will cause them to bloom longer because they are not using their energy on seed production. Other perennials may not rebloom but your garden will look neater if deadheaded. Deadheading can also reduce disease that might otherwise develop in the dying blooms. The only reason not to deadhead is if you want the flowers to produce seed and self sow into your garden.

Deadheading can be done with your garden pruners, sharp scissors or you can simply use your fingers and pinch. Some perennials are easy to pinch off and others with tougher stems have to be cut.

Daylilies are one of the perennials that look better if deadheaded. Daylilies produce a cluster of short stemmed blooms at the end of a long stem. This makes daylilies very easy to deadhead. You simply pinch off the wilted bloom. After all the blooms on a daylily stem have finished blooming, you will want to cut the stem off down to the foilage. Bearded iris is another flower that is deadheaded in the same way.

Shasta Daisy is one of the perennials that will bloom longer if deadheaded. I have seen people cut or pinch the flower head off, but that leaves behind a rather unattractive stem. Since shasta daisy only produces one flower to a stem, once the flower fades, cut the stem off down to the base of the foliage.

Some perennials like phlox may produce more than one flower cluster to a stem. In this case you should cut back to the next cluster of blooms. When the entire stem is finished blooming, cut the whole stem back to a leafy part of the stem.

A good rule of thumb when deadheading perennials is to cut back to a leaf, bud or another stem.

This article is in response to requests for instruction and information on how to deadhead. If there is something that you would like to see more information on in the future, please contact me and let me know.