During the months leading into winter, it is not at all uncommon to find that the garden looks dried up, tired, and unimpressive. For this reason, one of the great challenges of fall lawn care involves how to keep flowers and plants looking acceptable enough so that they still do justice to your yard. Obviously, you aren’t going to want to plant new flowers after the growing season is already nearing its end, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get your flowers looking their best. In this post, we discuss how deadheading will keep your garden in pristine shape during fall, and explain how you can go about completing this simple yet effective procedure.
Deadhead Your Day Lilies Each Fall
What is deadheading?
Deadheading refers to trimming flowers that are dead, and it makes it possible for the flower to bloom one last time. Naturally, deadheading is traditionally completed during the fall, and it is crucial to complete the deadheading before the flowers begin to seed. One of the best things about deadheading is that there is virtually no plant that will not benefit from it. At the same time, it is also very important to bear in mind that if you do want plant growth—you should certainly resist deadheading and are better off just letting the plant complete its seeding process on its own.
How to deadhead
Different types of plants require different forms of deadheading. No matter what, you want to deadhead when the blooms are dying (if they are brown, dried up, etc.) When dealing with plants that have long stems (the daylily is one of the best examples), simply break the flower where the stem converges with the stalk. Meanwhile, with herb flowers (such as chrysanthemums), all you will need to do is pinch the dead bloom to remove it. Flowers with tough stems (such as hostas, coneflowers, and peonies) should be snipped about a quarter-inch above the bud below them.
It is important not to be rigid when deciding when to complete your deadheading. The right time one year is not necessarily the optimal time the following year, and you need to pay attention to the weather conditions. If the summer is cold, you can get away with deadheading later in the season than if the summer is hotter. Whenever you decide to deadhead, remember that you are helping out your plants by allowing them to conserve the energy that they’d use during the seeding process. Simply put, deadheading is really one of the easiest fall lawn care tasks you can do, and you will keep your plants looking great all autumn long.
