For many gardeners, these days of late summer sunshine draw us out in the garden more than any other time of year. The workload has leveled off but deadheading remains one element of a productive yet tidy garden. I have to admit that my efforts to control abundant plant growth and keep everything within bounds can be downright exasperating. Fortunately, summer days are long and warm, and by late afternoon there’s no place I’d rather spend my time.
Until I began to garden on my own, I didn’t really know the difference between deadheading, pinching out, pruning and cutting back. They seem like such simple terms until you come face to face with a plant. Simply put, deadheading is the act of removing spent flowers. By deadheading, you prevent the plant from going to seed and encourage the plant to send out new flowers. It also improves the appearance of most plants, particularly roses and herbaceous perennials.
The classic method of deadheading chrysanthemums is to literally “pinch back” or “pinch out” the topmost growth. If you pinch the tips out until mid to late August, the plant will be fuller and more compact when it is allowed to produce flowers. This prevents each stem from getting too tall and leggy, falling over and planting petals in the dirt when autumn rains arrive. It also delays the bloom period, extending flower production well into the fall season.
So, pinching is a method of deadheading. It literally involves a pinch with the thumb and forefinger. Take hold of the stem right below the flower bud and pinch with your thumbnail pressed against the fleshy end of your index finger. It breaks right off. Taking off the terminal end of a stem forces the plant to send out two shoots where there was one. Later, pinch those out and they each send out two shoots. This method works for coleus, asters and other soft-stemmed plants.
Since I often learn my best lessons from the mistakes I make in the garden, I give “pinching” credit for teaching me other subtleties of deadheading. For example, pinching does not work for tough, woody or fibrous plant stalks. On the occasion that I have tried to pinch off a spent rose blossom, because I was too lazy to go hunting for a pair of pruners, I learned that pinching does not work on roses of any size.
If you try, and I venture a guess that most of us have tried this at least once, you will learn that you can pinch, bend, twist and yank all you want. The rose will not break off between your fingers no matter how determined you are. You will end up ripping the internal membrane of the stem. The rose would rather let you pull it out by the roots than go in such an undignified manner. So stop, take a breath and cut the rose stem with a pair of clean, sharp hand pruners.
Pruning
Pruning is also the process of cutting back woody plants such as shrubs and small trees. By definition, it’s not considered pruning when you cut down an herbaceous perennial. That’s called cutting back and is usually done to clean up the garden in early spring or in late fall. Pruning is best tackled one type of plant at a time, one job at a time. My advice is to buy the best book available and look up the specific plant you want to prune.
I still work with “The Complete Book of Pruning and Training Plants” by David Joyce and Christopher Brickell. They have published several books together, including the American Horticultural Society edition on pruning. Every basic garden book will show a picture of the correct way to prune roses, fruit trees, hedges and other woody plants. You can read a hundred times how to prune and still not quite see it in your mind. Take five minutes and have a good look. In this instance, there is no doubt that a picture is worth a thousand words.
August is spent fine-tuning the garden you have created. In my opinion, this has been one of the best years yet for many flowering plants. Or does being a gardener just make you think life gets better and better? In years past, when spring rains stayed with us until July 4, we groaned politely about the incessant rain growing plants to perfection. As we prune, thin, cut back and deadhead in preparation for autumn’s arrival, could too much sunshine be our next big complaint?
Robb Rosser is a WSU-certified master gardener.
