Today’s garden blooms always seem more important than tomorrow’s garden flowers. But most gardeners are happy to cut off the fading flowers in July to allow new, perfect blooms to grow.
By July, a perennial garden in full bloom may begin to fade a little around the edges. Base plants such as roses, hydrangeas and dahlias may have flowers that are overblown, faded or wilted. It might be time for a haircut. Another name for a plant care in July is dead. It is a colorful term for cutting off the flowers for the benefit of the plant. In some cases, we deadhead to prevent or delay seed formation, but in July, the primary purpose of dead flowers is to get a second wave of blooms.
Grab your favorite pair of pruners (our Editor-in-Chief Melanie swears by it her Felco 2 Pruners you can find on Amazon) and get snipping! Here are five plants to deadhead in July for repeat blooms all summer long.
1. Roses
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Let’s start with the queen of the flower garden – the rose bush. Despite their hard-to-grow reputation, most of us have roses in our garden and still get those thrills when the buds open in the spring. Roses deadly it is not a universal rule. If your roses drop their blooms and rebloom after this, they are called “self-cleaning” and do not need deadheading.
But everyone else does better with deadheading, not once, not twice, but regularly throughout the summer. You will no doubt see roses wilting in July and – assuming your species is not self-cleaning – deadhead is the only thing keeping your roses looking good.
Killing roses is not a complicated task in the garden. Use clean, sterile pruning shears and make a cut on the diagonal just above a five-leaved stem.
2. Salvia
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Unlike roses, salvias they tend to spread, so by July, you’re more likely to have 30 blooms than 3. The inflorescences of this hardy perennial provide a full-service dining room for a wide range of pollinators, including the big three, bees, butterflies and hummers. But by July, the first crop of bright flowers is very likely to decline.
You want your salvia “flower factory” to produce vibrant blue and purple blooms, and the key is to deadhead your salvia. Pruning now will not only keep the flowers coming, it will also make the plant bushier, tidier and stop seed production.
Select drooping, drooping, drooping or wilting flower spikes and prune them back with sterile pruning shears. Spikes deadhead flowers by cutting the stems back. You want to remove most of the stem, making the cut just above a set of leaves.
3. Hydrangeas
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They are yours reblooming hydrangeas? If so, you can expect more than one crop of flowers in the summer, but this only works if you do deadhead the faded flowers. But you don’t have to buy special varieties to get reblooming varieties. The typical, super-popular large leaf hydrangeas (think snowballs or laces) bloom reblooms (also called remontant) and so it mountain hydrangeas.
How does it work? These hydrangeas bloom on both old and new wood. The first flower on the wood was produced the previous season. Then, once these flowers have matured and faded, they bloom a second time on new wood of the current season.
The death of these flowers actually results in a whole new crop of beautiful flowers. Using sharp, clean pruning shears, cut off any fading blossoms just above a new set of leaves. New buds will grow and mature in late summer, just as the other flowers in the garden call it quits for the season.
4. Conifers
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Conifersalso known by their genus name Echinaceathey are staples of the perennial garden. They are so easy to grow they seem to grow themselves. They are known as the top flowers for beginners since it is almost impossible to fail. These beautiful, daisy-like flowers or conifers just seem eager to grow and the blooms can last most of the growing season.
Since these colorful flowers don’t usually fade in July, why consider dead? It relates to their willing ways. These seeds fortunately, even during the summer, and can overcrowd the garden. July is a perfect time to tackle this problem head on, so to speak. Dead conifers in July will prevent them from reseeding early.
Deadhead with sharp pruners, cleaned and sterilized. Take out the stems just above the first set of leaves and cut them just above them. It is better to die in July than in autumn, as birds are happy to feast on the seeds of flowers in autumn.
5. Dahlias
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Dahlias it might just be the prettiest summer flower you didn’t know you needed! These large, lush flowers are quite showy and look amazing as cut flowers too. Dahlias bloom all summer and stop only with the first night frost. The long flowering period makes these sun lovers extremely popular.
But you can get dahlias for flower arrangements in July – and, at the same time – extend the already long dahlia season. If the flowers are spent, call it dead. Pruning wilted dahlia flowers it redirects the plant’s energy to put out more blooms. Otherwise, think of it like collecting cut dahlia stems to enjoy at home.
In either case, you’ll want to use sharp, disinfected pruning shears or gardening shears. Make a diagonal cut down the stem just above a set of leaves. This type of care allows the plant to produce new growth from the nodes and, from that growth, even more blooms during the growing season.
