According to Wikipedia:
“Deadheading can refer to the following:
* Pruning in landscaping and other plant care.
* Deadheading (aviation) – the transport of off-duty crew to their next assignment.
* Deadheading (railroads) – the movement of non-revenue personnel or equipment to a position required by schedule.”
This is the season for deadheading iris and peonies. We dead head the iris for aesthetic reasons. The stalks with shriveled, dead flowers are not the prettiest sight, so once we have gotten to the end of the bloom time, I cut back the stalks and dispose of them.
The peonies, if not dead headed, will create a seed pod. Rather than have the plant put the effort into making seed that I don’t want, I cut off spent blooms so that the plant itself will grow and become hardier. Elegante Mother taught me to cut the stems back to shape the plant for the summer.
Soon, I’ll need to deadhead coreopsis plants to encourage them to continue to bloom.
I should be deadheading the daisies, but instead, I plant to either dig them up and give them away, or I’m going to prune them back so severely that it would be considered more than deadheading. We have masses of them this year, and with the recent rain, and the heat of summer coming early, they have gotten lanky and are leaning out from the center of the pods. There are so many of them that you can hardly get up the sidewalk.
So, I have my work cut out for me (no pun intended). The gardens will look better, and the plants I want to keep will be healthier. We’ll have greater air circulation and each plant will get more sunshine.
Summer’s here…..and it’s time to be in the gardens!