Deadheading gives your flowers life.

Deadheading is the act of removing spent flower heads from the plant. This simple practice can be the difference between mediocre blooms and a voluminous show.

The practice is not necessary for flowers to survive, but it is essential if you want them to thrive.

What’s deadheading?

Plants channel their energy into all of their leaves and flowers, dead or alive. .

When a bloom comes to its end, the plant directs energy towards creating seeds from that flower.

By snipping away faded blooms, we encourage the plant to dedicate its resources to producing fresh buds.

This not only tidies up the plant, it also prolongs the flowering season by extending the plant’s bloom time—a huge perk during a month where summer flowers are fading fast.

How to deadhead

Deadhead when you notice flowers beginning to wilt, brown and die.

Some plants, like petunias, can be deadheaded daily. Others, like geraniums, less so.

You can deadhead with pruners, but I usually end up using my fingers, as I always have them on me!

When you notice a flower that needs to be removed, trace the stem back to a set of healthy leaves or a branching point. Just above this growth point is where you want to cut.

Use your pruners to simply snip the flower, or your fingernails to pinch it off. You can throw the flowerhead away, or just toss it in the dirt (as long as it is not suffering from powdery mildew or another disease).

By taking off the extra stem along with the flower, you direct the plant’s energy to its natural growth points, instead of an empty, growth-less stem.

I suppose you could call deadheading a chore, but I find it wholly therapeutic. I often take a break from work by sitting on the front steps of my porch and mindlessly deadheading the petunias. A benefit for the both of us.

👩‍🌾 Seeds I’m sowing

This weekend I’m sowing my next round of salad greens: spinach, lettuce and kale.

Sowing these seeds in August should set us up for a nice fall crop of greens. I can’t wait to put our garden veggies to use in our new kitchen—just three more weeks until I can!

🍄 What I’m inspired by

Like many children, The Tale of Peter Rabbit was one of the more well-worn books on my shelf long ago.

But only recently have I started tumbling down the rabbit hole that is the world of Beatrix Potter.

Maybe it’s her early, stunning scientific illustrations, her pursuits of mycology (and eventually, her rejection into the field), or her natural inkling for dreaming up worlds inspired by her real-life rabbits (Benjamin Bouncer and Peter Piper) that continue to draw me in.

Either way, I love a rabbit hole—especially one carved out by the queen of garden creatures herself.

Do you grow hydrangeas? Which types have you had the most success with? My ‘Bloomstruck’ hydrangeas from Endless Summer have been the most prolific so far this summer!

xx,

Courtney

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