Deadheading spent booms on plants is important, especially with perennials. Many modern annuals have been bred so that the plant will keep blooming without deadheading. Wave petunia was the first annual where breeders managed to achieve this, but now it is rare for any type of petunias to need deadheading. However, this is not the case with perennials, where deadheading makes the plants bloom longer. Otherwise, many perennials will waste their energy producing seeds. After a main stem has finished flowering, cut it down to the base. Many plants will then send up a second smaller set of flower stems. With plants that have many flowers on one stem, pinch off individual flowers as they fade. With fall flowers, such as asters, you can cut off clusters of the faded flowers so that the plant can produce more. With plants that produce just one plume per stem, such as Shasta daisies, cut off each spent flower stem at ground level. With flowers that produce large numbers of tiny flowers, such as wood asters, shear off all spent blooms with shears or scissors after the main flush of flowers is spent. Dead flowers turn into seeds, and unless you are collecting seeds, don't allow your perennials to waste their energy producing them. This is Moya Andrews and today we focused on deadheading.
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Native Sidalcea
The genus Sidalcea is made up of species from western North America, and the best of the species is Sidalcea malviflora, so named because the flowers resemble mallows. The scientific name is actually a combination of two related plant forms, “sida” and “alcea,” because it resembled both the mallow and the hollyhock. The most used common names recently are miniature hollyhock and prairie mallow. Other common names in the past were checkers and checkerbloom because of the alternate placement of the flowers on the stem. The flowers are cup-shaped and grow on spikes and have five pink petals. The plant adapts well, though it prefers afternoon shade in warm climates, and tolerates most types of soil as long as it is well watered. More flowers are produced if the dead flower stems are cut back.
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Our Native Sidalcea
The scientific name Sidalcea is actually a combination of two related plant forms, “sida” and “alcea,” because it resembled both the mallow and the hollyhock. Common names are miniature hollyhock and prairie mallow. Other common names in the past were checkers and checkerbloom because of the alternate placement of the flowers on the stem.
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Globe Amaranth
Globe amaranth has the botanical name Gomphrena globosa and adult butterflies love this pretty annual. The little round flower heads bloom for a long time in the sunny summer garden and into early fall and dry beautifully for winter bouquets. The pink and orange varieties are especially striking and hold up well in a vase, especially if only one bloom is cut per stem. Fortunately, they have long stems so that is useful for many types of flower arrangements.
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Cimicifuga racemosa
Cimicifuga racemosa, commonly called bugbane, black snakeroot, or black cohosh, growing wild and planted it in his Pennsylvania garden. He then sent seeds to his friend Peter Collinson in England. The Native Americans told the colonists to use it to treat fevers, lumbago, rheumatism, and snake bites with a medicine made from the roots. Its common names became bugbane and squawroot. The leaves are coarse and toothed, and the plant produces clumps of leaves, as well as tall, slender racemes of delicate white flowers that can grow up to six feet in midsummer. The plant likes light shade, rich soil, and frequent water. The flowers are not available commercially but are used as cut flowers from the garden where they can be striking in arrangements. The spires have also given rise to the folk name of fairy candles. Note: Cimicifuga racemosa has been reclassified as Actaea racemosa. Additional common names for this plant are black cohosh and black snakeroot.
New Zealand