I can't remember....

Someone gave a tip on keeping their phlox and purple coneflowers more bushy and sturdy? Just wondering does this also make the plant shorter as well? Just curious. IOh yeah and does it work for black eyed susan's as well? TIA....

I know you can cut your phlox early in the season. I'm not sure that it works on echinacea or rudbeckia though.

Do you know if it keeps the plant smaller or will it grow to normal size?

It ends up being a little smaller--well it kind of matters how much you cut. e.g. 4 inches on phlox would result in less tha 4 inches shorter, so you can adjust.

Oh ok perfect - just what I wanted to know....thanks.

Great tips! Thanks from me, too!

If you pinch back the outer ring of the clump only, they will allow more air circulation, help hold up the taller ones in the middle and bloom slightly later than the ones in the middle extending the bloom time for your phlox.

That's true ngam, but you have to be sure to cut the dead blooms off the early blooming middle ones or they will distract from the later blooming front ones. I have just cut all of them because I wanted them shorter.

Victor, I deadhead spent blooms anyway. Not you? Your gardens always look in top shape.

Rabbits deadheaded my phlox for me, unfortunately before the blooms appeared.

Not always Dave. Laziness, access, heat and kids and other duties often prevent me from doing so. I would say that a solid majority of my spent blooms do not get dead headed.

That's why I've questioned the strongly held belief that it makes a big difference in how well the plant blooms. It makes perfect sense to me - not wasting energy to produce seeds, etc. - I just have not experienced it personally.

One possible exception though - this year I have a Clematis (planted last year) in a container that's growing up a small trellis. It's conveniently located right near my entry so I'm always walking past and dead heading. It has bloomed continuously since May. Now is it just the cultivar or is dead heading doing it? Who knows.

Conversely, I also have a Clem that I just planted this Spring that's growing up clear netting on the house siding that also has not stopped blooming - and I have never dead headed it! So go figure. I dead head very few of my DL's and they do just fine. I suspect a lot of people just don't want to look at dying blooms. If I'm photographing a plant, I will dead head.

Victor:

Dead-heading is also a challenge for me. I think that next year I will do a comparison between the plants I dead-head and the plants I don't. Will one give more blooms over the other? Will one bloom longer than the other? Or, will dead-heading make any difference at all? Ahhhhh ... very scientific of me - LOL!

my least favorite plant to deadhead seems to also be the one that needs it most: petunias. They're sticky! I might not do them again next year. We'll see... come to think of it, the ones I planted in the ground are doing much better than the potted ones.

Either in the ground or in pots / planters ... I so agree with the 'stickiness' of the petunias. I think it's worse, though, after a rain. I don't get out every day to dead-head them. I just manage about twice a week. Still, they are looking pretty good!

Get the Wave ones - don't need dead heading. I have not dead headed another type I got at HD and they are blooming profusely. I think they're a Proven Winners one.

I have the wave ones, and I still dead-head, simply because I like them looking good most of the time. And yeah, even the wave ones are sticky.

What are the Wave ones? Do these look like them?

Not sure they have them in white. It's a brand name Harper. They are very widely available now. HD usually has them. So does Costco and many nurseries.

Candyce - waves in a bathtub - great idea!

Well, I got mine as a light pink, dark pink, white mixture from HD. These were the only petunias they had available.... they certainly need to be deadheaded, though.

Here's a shot of the PW ones from last month. They have bloomed even more densely than this since then. No dead heading at all.

Yeah, Victor. I just couldn't resist the visual pun.

I dead head when I'm looking for seeds....

I've had to cut my back twice now in order to keep them neat and blooming. They were getting so scraggly in their pots. They're just starting to bloom again after the 2nd pruning and are really looking nice.

I don't think deadheading prolongs existing bloom but encourages a 2nd bloom. Of course some perennials won't give a 2nd bloom. There are some plants that don't rebloom for me unless I cut them back/deadhead. (phlox, bee balm) Other things just look better cut back (columbine, geranium, spiderwort)

My least favorite plants for deadheading is DL and shasta daisies. very time consuming. I don't do much with annuals though.