Dead heading

I'm confused about the dead heading process.

I have learned that you pinch the finished bloom just behind the fleshy bulge to dead head. But when?

Do you do it when it starts to lose its petals and flop about? Before or after? I know you need to avoid it making a hip.

Also - by dead heading the rose will new buds form and keep it flowering throughout summer?

Any help or rose tips greatly appreciated :cnfs:

 

I asked a very similar question a while ago, and got some useful tips of folks. Here's my thread on the topic:

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/dead-heading-flowers-22044.html?t=22044

 

"by dead heading the rose will new buds form and keep it flowering throughout summer?"

For Roses, specifically, you should lightly prune, rather than just remove the flower. Cut back a bit to just above a suitable bud - e.g. an outward facing one. The bud will "break" and a new stem will form, giving you a Second Crop :thumb: a bit later on in the Summer.

 

Kristen
For Roses, specifically, you should lightly prune, rather than just remove the flower. Cut back a bit to just above a suitable bud - e.g. an outward facing one. The bud will "break" and a new stem will form, giving you a Second Crop a bit later on in the Summer.

These two pieces of advice contradict each other?

 

Yeah, they do don't they!!

WOO knows far more than me, I would go with that ... or do some-and-some and see what works for you.

Only breaking the flowers off will encourage growth at the tips of the shoots, and probably that will be quicker than cutting 6" or 9" of stem off. But my roses would probably be top heavy if I did that!

On the multi-bloom type roses I do just snap off the dead heads, so that the rest of the group flower, but when the last one in the group has finished I then using my "lightly prune" approach.

 

I take the heads off as soon as they start to go over-either a petal falls or after a while you can just tell when an individual flowers best day was yeaterday. It makes no difference with me because I will be pruning them back down anyway for next years flowers.

Having said that if it looks wrong after that I will probably take it back to the leaf, so if you take your time you will come good.


And you make me chuckle, because a heck of a lot of gardening advice is contradictory, it is a personal thing. There are no rules, just vague guidelines really.

 

I know. I'm sorry, I just wondered which method produced more rapid flowers. I really meant no offence at all. I'm new to all this and was a bit confused!

I absolutely love getting advice. I'm the kind of person who get's kind of bored reading endless gardening books, because it is just one books point of view. I love the books I have, and I love reading them in bed! But my favourite thing is bouncing ideas off people, I have three children raised purely on listening to other peoples advice and trying it.

So excuse me if I rattle on.. I just love to ask people who have more knowledge than me for advice.

 

I like this 'no rules' idea

I agree though. Even with my limited experience, I've had successes that went against all the textbooks, and failures when following the books to the letter. My dad, who is much more experienced than me, regularly changes his gardening methods as he finds different ways to do things, encounters some new setback, chats with other gardeners etc. My neighbour, who is a knowledgeable guy on all things horticultural once said to me that the reason he enjoys gardening so much is that the possibilities for experimentation and discovery are endless.

 

"(One example being Winter pruning some do it in November,and some in March)"

Now there you are wrong WOO :D ... because I do both!

Half-way prune in the Autumn (to stop the plants getting rocked in the wind) and then the to-within-an-inch-of-their-life prune in the Spring - when I can see which bits of wood have been killed by the frost, and choose a suitable bud etc.

 

Different methods for different gardeners, because I do it when I remember to lol.

 

Much better :D Two gardeners, and three opinions :thumb: Perfect!

 

I cut back to a five leaf branch I was shown that method by the head gardner at Barnsley house.