Deadheading Myth by Bec Wolfe-Thomas / The Garden Professors

Photo: Bec Wolfe-Thomas

"Tis the season that posts about deadheading start to show up. The myth is that you need to deadhead spent blooms to get the plant to re-bloom. The theory people apply is that the plant will put all its energy into seed development and won’t bloom anymore because it no longer needs to for reproduction. This is false, plants are either genetically predisposed to re-bloom or they are not. To what degree they re-bloom also relates back to their genetics. It is a trait that plants are bred for.