Week 7 - Year 1: Dead Heads

Unlike Jerry's famed followers, my dead heads get their name from less ethereal sources. In gardening, the dead heads are simply what they sound like - the dead, shriveled up buds on a flower. I'm still mastering the art of deadheading - figuring out which heads need to be removed to spark new growth and which are "self-cleaning" and will take care of it themselves. There are apparently four ways to "deadhead" a plant - Snipping, Snapping, Shearing or Pinching - all of which sound uncomfortable and surely make any male wince at the thought. In my garden, I've been dealing with all of the techniques with varied success.

Here's what I know:

The Pinchers

The lowest (well besides self-cleaners) maintenance and the most intuitive. You just "pinch" the deadhead off the stem.

• Begonias
• Pansies
• Petunias (optional)

The Snippers

Here's where the tools come in - you use a hand pruner to cut the dead bud right before the first leaf.

• Campanula (can also be snapped or pinched)
• Heliotrope
• Nicotiana
• Roses

The Snappers

This requires you to "snap" the flower off at the base. It really only applies to really long flowers like geraniums that have a large head.

• Snapdragon

The Shear-ers

This requires the large scary shears to do some serious cutting. I just use my hand pruners since containers aren't going to grow big enough to justify that kind of blade.

• Campanula
• Snapdragon

The Self-Cleaners

These are the easy guys. Though it can be hard to resist the temptation of snapping off the dead plants, the rule is that these guys can take care of themselves.

• Bidens
• Calibrachoa
• Lobelia
• Verbena
• Wave Petunias

The Big Projects - Pruners

Then, some plants are so high maintenance that they require annual, complicated pruning in early spring:

• Clematis

Unknown

With the rest, I've been going with my gut since I haven't found any great insight on the worldwide web.

But, what to do with the deadheads? I'm not entirely sure. Sometimes, I just throw them over the deck. Other times, I test them out as fertilizer for some of the bigger pots, but I'm not sure how effective it is ....