A Guide to Deadheading Perennials

Why Deadheading Works

The Basic Method

Don't worry about buying special tools. You can use your fingers for the job, or a pair of sharp scissors or shears for tougher stems.

Plant Specific Methods

• Plants That Flower From a Single Stem (e.g. Delphinium & Blazing Star):

  Wait until the flowers begin to fade and cut back the entire flowering stem all the way to the ground, if possible.

• Lilies & Daylilies:

  Remove the spent blossoms from lilies just below the bottom of the flower and keep as many leaves on the plant as possible. With daylilies, you can either remove the spent flower every day, or wait until the entire stalk (scape) flowers and cut the stalk down the to the plant's base.

• Irises:

  Wait until all of the flowers on a single stalk finish blooming, then cut the entire stem down to the plant's base.

• Plants with multiple flower heads on one stem (e.g. False Sunflower (Heliopsis):

  Deadhead the stem at foliage level.

• Plants that produce plumes (e.g. Russian sage):

  Cut plants back just below the bulk of the flowers.

• Plants that produce single blooms on long stems (e.g. Shasta Daisy):

  Deadhead individual flowers.

• Plants that produce flowers at foliage level (e.g. Coreopsis):

  Shear plants halfway back to the base.

• Deadhead these perennials to prolong their bloom:

  Balloon flower, bellflower, blanket flower, coreopsis, delphinium, foxglove, garden phlox, hollyhock, lupine, monkshoods, spiderwort and yarrow.

• Deadhead these perennials to keep them looking tidy but don't expect reblooming:

  Astilbe, barrenwort, begenia, bugbane, goatsbeard, lamb's ears, ligularia, lilyturf, oriental poppy, peony and Siberian iris.