Flowers That Don’t Need Deadheading
Deadheading is removing old flower blooms to allow the plant to keep blooming longer. Many re-blooming plants will just get more and more untidy and stop flowering if the spent flowers are not removed. So, deadheading is a garden task that occupies a lot of time for most gardeners. Roses are one plant that needs a lot of deadheading to remove the old blooms so the plant will continue flowering.
As the flowers fade away, they begin to form seed heads. This means that the energy of the plant is being spent on the development of seeds, not more flowers. So to direct that energy to blooms, you should deadhead.
These “self cleaning” plants will continue to flower even if you don’t remove the old blooms
1. Baptisia
Baptisia Australis have lovely violet blue flowers. The have quite a long bloom time in early summer but if you leave the flowers on the plant, they will form into purple pods that rattle in the wind and have interest on their own.
2. Begonias
Almost all types of begonias keep themselves clean and re-blooming by dropping the old blooms. This goes for the common wax begonia, angel wing begonias, and tuberous begonias as well.
3. Lantana
These colorful plants are butterfly magnets. You will need to water and fertilize to keep them blooming but deadheading is not required.
4. Angelonia
This self cleaning plant has dead foliage that dries up and disappears. It comes in many different colors.
5. New Guinea Impatiens
This pretty annual has a self cleaning habit, so there is no need to remove the old blooms to keep the color coming all summer long. This larger version of the impatiens family has both colorful leaves and larger flowers than the normal annual impatiens.
6. Impatiens
Like it’s larger cousin, the New Guinea impatiens, the smaller regular varieties of impatiens clean themselves and don’t need you to do the work of removing the flowers.
7. Sedum
The seed heads remain on this plant right into fall. Since the seed heads are attractive in their own right, many gardeners allow them to remain on the plant right through the winter months and only prune the plant back in the early spring.
8. Astilbe
Both the tall flower stalks and the graceful foliage of astilbe is attractive in the garden. The flower stalks sit well above the foliage and will continue sending shoots upwards for many weeks. The older flower stems dry into pretty plums that look nice in the garden, so there is no need to remove them.
9. Vinca
This pretty annual plant cleans itself by dropping the flower heads below. The plant will continue to flower all summer long with no extra work from you spent removing it’s pretty blooms.
10. Million Bells
Calibrachoa has the common name million bells, which gives a hint to it’s lack of a need to be deadheaded. This pretty plant looks like mini petunias and attracts both butterflies and hummingbirds.
11. Nemesia
This pretty plant forms clumps of low growing mounds that are just covered in flowers. The plant is self cleaning, so you don’t need to deadhead the old flowers.
Plants that require light deadheading
1. Wave Petunias
While not 100% deadheading free, wave petunias drop most of their flowers below and continue to bloom. Even though they do require a tiny bit of maintenance, their long lasting color is totally worth a bit of extra tending.
2. Geraniums
Geranium flowers are super long lasting. They grow on long stalks that just keep blooming over a long period of time. Each big flower head has masses of smaller flowers on it. When the petals have completely finished opening it is very easy to just snip off the whole stem.
When you buy flowers look for some of this words on the tags, to find other flowers that don’t need deadheading:
- low maintenance
- self cleaning
- no deadheading required
- undemanding
- little care needed
