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For years I was in a fog about dead-heading my plants. First off I am a lazy gardener and dead-heading took a lot of time. Secondly, I did not know when to dead-head or when not to and thirdly I never knew what to dead-head and what not to.
My objective to dead-heading was to get a second bloom or to cause the plant to produce more blooms with the buds that were on the other stems.
Here are the results of my trial and terror method of gardening over the many years.
For my Astible I discovered it will not re-bloom if I dead-head it so I don’t do anything except to leave the seed heads standing to add some texture to my garden until I can no longer stand looking at them and then I just cut them down.
For my Balloon flowers I discovered that dead-heading worked for them because it prolonged bloom and kept the plants looking good and fresh. The stems are tough and when cut my cutters get sticky with sap so I take along a spray bottle of alcohol that I use in my art studio to clean and wipe as I go. The Balloon flower reseeds itself.
My Bee Balm was no in the dead-heading department. It rarely re-blooms so I just cut it down to about 4 or 5 inches from the ground.
My Columbine re-bloomed with dead-heading by snipping off spent blooms to side stems then I cut down to the ground when finished and I leave some seed heads to ripen so they will come up again next year.
My Daylily will re-bloom when I dead-head it. I just snap off the spent flowers as they wilt and this will allow my later blooms to be come larger. One can cut them off to the ground at the end of autumn. However, if you do, then you need to know that some cultivars re-bloom and some do not. Since I do not know which is which, I just leave them be.
My Delphiniums and Foxglove will re-bloom with dead-heading if I pinch off the spent blossoms on the stems. One can cut the finished spikes to a leaf bud to encourage smaller side shoots, but I do not do this. Why? Because I am a lazy gardener!
My Goldenrod will re-bloom with dead-heading and if you cut off all seed heads it will not re-bloom next season. If you want them again next year, just cut off some of the seed heads.
With my Geraniums I do one of two things. I will snap off the dead ones back to the base of the stem they are coming from and secondly when all the flowers are finished I will cut them back to 2 or 3 inches above the soil.
My Hollyhocks are dead-headed by pinching off the spent blooms as I see them. I leave a few flowers to re-seed. In the fall I cut all down to the ground. I have read that if one cuts them down to the ground as the blooms all die that one may get a second growth on the short stems. I have never done this.
My Lavender will re-bloom with dead-heading and as I harvest the flowers with the stems I cut the entire plant back onto to healthy foliage and that encourages a second flowering which is shorter than the first and I only harvest the flowers leaving the stems.
My Lilies are not dead-headed and I leave the foliage until it is yellow to supply the bulbs what they need for next years blooming. Basically this advice is good for all types of bulbs.
More in Part II.
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABC’s of Wine and Beer Making”. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my site.”
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