Shasta Daisies

What does it mean to deadhead and cut back? I have some daisies that are dying... what is too much water and not enough? I have some thriving beautifully.

Deadheading is removing the spent flowers, some plants if you do this will give you another round of blooms. Cutting back is a little more severe than deadheading, you take off more of the plant when you do that. If the plant is getting leggy and floppy then cutting back might be appropriate, but then it may take longer to get blooms again so if all you want is for it to flower again, then just removing the flowers is probably the way to go.

When you say you have some daisies that are dying--do you mean just the flowers are fading, or is the whole plant dying? If it's the whole plant, can you give us some ideas of what might be different between the plants that are healthy and the ones that aren't?

is dead heading the same as pinching a plant? does pinching a plant mean just removing the top with your fingers or do you really pinch the top off -maybe to sort of close up the new end?

Pinching a plant is usually done before it blooms to encourage bushier growth. Deadheading is removing spent flowers after they've bloomed to prevent seeds from forming. Pinching is called that because a lot of people just do it with their fingers, pinching off the growing tip, but you could use scissors or clippers instead if you want. Your technique can be similar in both cases, but the purpose of doing them is different.

i went around and cut off the dead flowers of my shasta daisies--now i have stems with leaves and nothing on top--my question is--will a flower grow on the same stem top? i don't think it will so wonder if i should cut each stem back low after the bloom fades?

They won't rebloom from the same stem. It's safe to cut the stem back to just above where it leafs out.

Sojourner

thanks--sadly my shasta daisies look terrible! half dead! we have had rain daily for 6 weeks--maybe they don't like that much?

Planolinda, I am not an expert, but my Shasta Daisies are very tough. This is what I do every year: I let them get too long, they flop over, then I cut them back hard and they look terrible. But they always grow back the next year, and then some.

thanks--maybe i trim them too soon--i have been cutting the flowers off as soon as they die

There's no problem with cutting the flowers off as they go to seed. It won't make your plants look any worse or do any harm.

You all in Texas are getting too much rain, and here we're in drought - the farmers have lost their first hay cutting and they're selling (underweight) livestock off because they can't feed them. Normally they'd be eating spring pasture growth here, and farmers would have already cut hay, but there's no new hay and the old has mostly been used up.

Feast or famine!

what a shame we can't share some of our rain--we had such a draught last year and now it has rained daily for 7 weeks!!!! big storms too! of course this is not at all normal for texas--