How to Deadhead Roses

Deadheading is the removal of the withered or otherwise finished blooms of a plant in order to encourage fresh blooms and new growth, keeping the plant looking fresh. When it comes to Roses, perhaps the most iconic flower and one of the very loveliest of garden plants, regular deadheading is important to keep the sumptuous blooms looking fresh and attractive all through the flowering season.

Read on for a comprehensive guide of how to get the most out of your deadheading and be sure to have a look at our guide on Rose pruning in general here.

Besides the obvious – making your roses look better – deadheading offers numerous benefits for the gardener. Primarily, deadheading is all about keeping the show going: as blooms begin to fade, a plant’s energy becomes devoted to producing seed instead. This is a process which the gardener can craftily thwart for a time by deadheading little and often, allowing for an elongated blooming period. Deadheading can also prevent rotting, as wet fallen petals can stick to leaves and begin the process, so by removing the faded blooms before they do you can easily avert this problem.

There’s no great array of high-tech equipment that you’ll need for deadheading; all it takes is a few simple tools that you’ll be able to pick up cheaply. These are:

Naturally enough, you’ll need something to do the cutting with! A good pair of Secateurs will do the job, but you can also invest in a pair of deadheading snips, which handily catch the falling blooms as you deadhead.

Deadheading involves plenty of getting up close and personal with your roses in order to cut in the right place and remove what you need to. To avoid being pricked by thorns, a good thick pair of gardening gloves are essential.

A medium to large bucket is very handy for collecting your cut flowers. It’s best if removed blooms do not fall onto the soil or come into contact with the leaves or other plants, as this can lead to rotting. It’s best to get a fairly large bucket as, very often, the removed blooms will be quite large.

And that’s all you need! There are of course further products that you can invest in if you wish (rose pruning sleeves for protecting your forearms are quite popular) but to get started, these three items will more than suffice.

In the world of rose pruning, there are two methods for deadheading to choose from depending on what you’re planning to remove. The likelihood is that in the course of a single flowering season, you’ll find yourself employing both methods at different times and possibly both at once. It all depends upon whether you’re removing a single or several finished blooms from a flowering head or where you’re removing the whole flowering head itself.

Very often, when tending your roses, you’ll notice that individual blooms may begin to fade or wilt even though they’re surrounded by healthy buds or blooms. Generally, it’s a good idea to deadhead as soon as the petals begin to fall. Of course, there’s no need to remove the whole flowering head! To remove each individual bloom, make sure your skin is well protected by gloves and move in to snip just where the flower joins the stem. Try to catch the falling the flower and deposit it in your bucket and leave the remaining buds and blooms to flower. This is a method beat applied as and when needed, so simply keep an eye out for wilting flowers and deadhead as needed!

Throughout the blooming season, and very often after each significant flush of flowers, you’ll find that often whole clusters will show signs of wilting or fading – it’s time to remove the lot. To do this, again make sure you’re well protected and follow the stem of the faded flowering head to just where it makes a junction with the first leaf which has five leaflets – this is where to snip. Again, deposit in your bucket (a larger bucket will definitely come in handy here). After this has been done, it’s a great idea to cut back any disproportionately large stems to the average height of the plant in order to create a neat rounded shape to your rose bush.

Not all roses were created equal, and there are some slightly different tactics to approaching certain kinds. Rambling roses, for example, will proliferate in long tendril like growths which will need to be cut back. They also only flower once so it’s important that as soon as the petals are falling it’s time to prune (check out our guide to rose pruning here). Roses can also be divided into single-flower and multi-flowered types, naturally, your pattern of deadheading will be affected by what types populate your garden.

Thankfully, however, the golden rule of simply checking for petal dropping, fading or wilting will hold good in all cases and you’ll be able to get a pretty good idea of the work ahead pretty quickly.

Deadheading isn’t a difficult garden task and can very effectively be done just a little at a time. Taking care to where protection, bringing along an adequately sized bucket and deciding on which method to go with is all you need to keep in mind. Do it little and often, and you can be sure of strong blooms and a fresh appearance for many flowering seasons to come.