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Deadheading is simply the process of removing flowers that have finished blooming – sometimes referred to as ‘spent’ flowers. Aside from improving the plant’s appearance by keeping it tidy, the act of deadheading spurs the plant into creating new buds and flowers.
“If your roses are repeat flowering varieties, you’ll need to deadhead them to keep them flowering,” says Heloise Brooke, head gardener at The National Trust's Calke Abbey.
“But if you don’t deadhead them, they will try to develop fruit (hips) and seeds, and all their energy will go into producing them instead.”
Developing seeds A plant’s reproductive system will always take priority over its other functions and will be the first in line for nutrients and water. Roses will still go on to create new flowers, even if they’re not deadheaded, but they will do so at a slower rate. So, one way to get more blooms is to grab some gardening gloves and secateurs and get to work.
Monty Don suggests that “pulling off the old flower heads will help, but the best approach is to use a pair of secateurs”.
Brooke advises: “Use a sharp pair of secateurs, hold the rose in one hand and cut the flower head off with some of the stem. Cut just above a main leaf, ideally at an angle, but straight across is also OK. Try not to leave any stem above the leaf, as this snag can die back.”
Once cut, a new shoot should then grow from the point.
As I’ve learnt from personal experience, investing in a decent pair of gardening gloves is best to avoid spiky thorns. A pair like David Austin’s gauntlet gloves, at £29, will protect your arms, too, especially if you’re reaching into large rose bushes.
Roses form either as single flowers or in clusters, sometimes called trusses.
“Single flowered roses can be removed one at a time,” says Brooke, “but with cluster sets or truss roses such as the Noisettes, or some of the floribunda roses, take off the whole cluster. Then, make the cut just above a main leaf.”
To prolong the life of cluster roses if only one of two flower heads have gone over, simply snip off the single flower heads and you’ll be left with the remaining cluster of flowers until the whole cluster needs removing.
Tip When the whole cluster has gone over, make your cut at a thicker part of the stem, just above a leaf. Cutting at this point, will produce a thicker shoot of its own, which will carry more flowers than if you’d cut at a thinner stem nearer the old flowers.
Hips
Some varieties of roses will have good hips – these are the fruits behind the flowers that can turn bright orange and red in autumn. If you want to enjoy the hips and the wildlife that they’ll attract to your garden, it’s best to leave the flowers alone, to allow them to set seed and produce fruit into September and beyond.
The RHS particularly recommends Rosa moyesii and Rosa rugosa for their hips.
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