dead heading my plants

[evedawn]

is there a practical reason why the dead flowers / leaves on plants need to be removed? LIke do they somehow draingthe root of nutrients or stop new buds forming?

Or is it only for aesthetics?

I'm not sure if i ought to remove dead and dying leaves and flower heads or not?

[welshlibranr]

Hi evedawn, I'm not a expert, but I believe that if you deadhead flowers it encourages them to flower for longer, and removing dead or dying leaves prevents any problems spreading to other parts of the plant, and of course the plants do look much better. Hope this helps.......................welsh

[whiffey]

I've always understood it in a simple way. The plant wants to reproduce itself. Once it gets feedback that seeds have been produced then it can die happy in a plant sort of way. If you keep nipping off the flowers then the plant has to keep on and on trying to reproduce itself with more and more flowers. This is why you should keep removing deadheads. It is cruel, but the Oooman rights act has not yet extended to vegetation (planned for 2011)

[Cugetit]

Well, for a change, I agree with all of the above and they are spot on regarding "prevention of spread of disease" and "once the plant seeds, it will feel it has achieved its aim and pack up". This has always been true and I have always spent many hours weekly just on these two tasks ,,, removing dead flowers. The only thing that irks me is that if one notices in some areas where the local authorities spend well on floral dispays or the pubs that overdo it, when do you ever see anybody dead heading etc and some of the pubs have fantastic displays.

[evedawn]

ah thanks all .... i shall be "deadheading" tomorrow then....

SSSHHHH cleversod - dont let gordi hear u.

[hammerman]

Whiffey has given the best description.

I love dead heading....very theraputic.

[evedawn]

well spent my lunch hour (i work close to home) deadheading my plants...very therapeutic indeed!

[kuulteach]

Am I wasting my time spearheading auctions petunias .... apparently they are hybrids which don't produce flowers from seeds... or is it that they don't produce true copies?

[kuulteach]

Petunias thing should read SUFFINIA petunias ...predictive text is Hadassah