Problems dead heading

Can anyone tell me how to dead head these - I am not sure how these should be dead headed...

Mimulus
Antirrhinum
Verbena
Pelargoniums

Thank you anyone who can help :gnthb:

 

The principle of deadheading is that you remove the old flower head and stalk back to a lower bud position. A bud position is either where you can see a bud, or to where there are leaves, as new buds can arise from the angle between the stem and leaves.

In most cases you would cut off the old stem, often just using your nails. But in the case of Pelargoniums it is better to break the flowering stem off by bending it away from the main stem. It will break away cleanly this way.

 

Thanks PeterS, I have found it difficult to work out how to dead head these particular types of flowers because the flowers tend to fall off anyway, and they are on a long stalk. Particularly the pelargoniums, because while some flowers have gone brown and horrid, flowers on the same 'head' are just coming into flower. Tricky!

 

The main aim is to stop them setting seed - so as long as you have taken off whatever will become a seed pod (or you take off the seed pods when you see them - then that should do the trick.

Once you know what the seed pod looks like, and how it forms in relation to the flower that was there before, you will probably be able to take the dead flower off before the seed pod appears.

For some plants, once they make seed pods they stop producing flowers, thinking they have "reproduced", so its obviously better to get the dead flowers off before the seed appears - once you know what to look for.

Secondary is keeping the plants looking attractive - that's quite a battle for flowers the size and style of Geraniums!

 

Yes, as Kristen says part of the objective is to make them look neat and tidy. And that can be very tedious if only part of a head of flowers have gone over. Removing individual blooms is very time consuming, but if you are like me you hate to remove the entire head, whilst part is still looking good.



There is a good arguement for growing sterile hybrids such as Geranium 'Patricia' above, which I photographed earlier this evening. Not only is it a lovely plant, but because it is sterile you never have to deadhead it. And because it cannot set seed, it flowers for about 16 to 20 weeks in a vain attempt to do so.