You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
One Sunday morning when I was three and still an only child, my mother and grandmother stopped at my Aunt Dode’s for a moment after church. I, in my church dress and sunbonnet, was turned loose into the backyard and the ladies went into the house. Five minutes later, when they came out to collect me, I stood there with a big grin and my little hands full of every blossom budding, blooming and dying that had been decorating my aunt’s pansy patch. It was my first foray into the fine art of deadheading and it left a lasting impression.
Many gardeners do not think of deadheading as an art, but see it rather as a chore. One woman even told me wearily exactly how many daffodils she had deadheaded, ”One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.” This is not a healthy attitude.
Let’s see, oh, yes, healthy attitudes. Sorry, I, um, well, I was deadheading some pansies, and pulling some little weeds, seeing about a nice rock for the new heather.
You see, when you are deadheading, you are tending to your garden in a most intimate way. To deadhead a flower, you must look at it and at the plant it is growing on. You notice the plant’s health, how well it is doing in regards to the plants around it and the state of the weed population. The choices you make about whether or not to leave a seed pod, how this little plant might be happier two feet close to the partial shade rather than in the full sun, and if perhaps you can impose on a friend to take some Sweet William seedlings off your hands are most easily done while you are observing all your plants from the perspective of relieving them of those dead flower heads.
Well, now, back from shearing the hardy geraniums at the west end of the porch, clipping the orange honeysuckle and training the purple clematis around the corner and up the string on the front of the porch (if I keep working on this article for much longer, I’ll have my deadheading caught up).
There are, of course, those times when you are simply taking a quick walk around and popping off a few spent daisy blooms here and a rose hip or two there, but even then, you are taking mental notes as to what is looking particularly good, what needs to be done when you have more time, what you might want to put in that empty space. Gardens, you see, are never really about product, but rather process. They are about going from daffodils and tulips to forget-me-nots and violets to daisies and roses and pinks to chrysanthemums and hardy asters and tall rudbeckias. Gardens are for keeping the daisies blooming so that there are some for your daughter’s best friend’s wedding in October and rose buds still clinging in the first December snow. And it is only by practicing the fine art of deadheading that you can accomplish that. Product, yes, but only because of the process.
Okay, off to take care of the Sweet Williams and the feverfew. Oh, by the way, my aunt once told me that she never had a better pansy patch than the one that I deadheaded for her. Maybe I should stop by and see how her pansies are doing this year.
About Kathleen M. Tenpas
We have a grazing dairy of 55 cows in the rolling hills of western New York State where we raised two daughters who have now blessed us with four grandchildren. I have messy, jungly beds of old roses, (some real antiques left by former owners), perennials, wildflowers and lots and lots of not so ornamental grasses! I have a Masters degree in Creative Writing: Poetry from Antioch University. I am a photographer and fabric artist and I bake a mean loaf of bread.
Posted by bolino (from Toledo, OH) on August 10, 2007 at 11:29 AM:
Speaking of tending your garden in a most intimate way, I am always amazed when folks tell me how beautiful my flower garden is because I can't step back and see it as they do. I see this plant with the dead flowers, this one with yellowing or eaten leaves etc,
I did step back and try to see it and must admit, from a distance it looks GREAT! But I can't keep that thought as I browse it in a most intimate way!
...
Posted by KyWoods (from Melbourne, KY) on August 10, 2007 at 3:00 PM:
bolino your discriminating eye is exactly what keeps it looking great! Now, how much will you charge to come down here and do my garden? LOL
Love the article! And the baby picture!
...
Posted by CapeCodGardener (from Mid-Cape, MA) on August 10, 2007 at 7:27 PM:
I never thought about how intimate the act of deadheading is--but you're right, Kathleen. It is a transaction that reminds me of "tough-love." Does anyone else beside me mentally apologize to the flowers while deadheading? I always feel apologetic because I am interrupting their drive to set seeds. . . I try to compensate by applying organic fertilizer, watching out for pests, etc.
It's always possible that I am nuts! LOL
...
Posted by KyWoods (from Melbourne, KY) on August 10, 2007 at 7:31 PM:
LOL, but nuts in a good way, CCG! I think it's sweet.
...
Posted by Kathleen (from Panama, NY) on August 11, 2007 at 6:48 AM:
lol, no more nuts than the rest of us. I seem to have left out the talking to them part - I'm not sure if that was conscious or if I was doing my talking on the page this time.
Thank you al for your kind words - glad I struck a chord.
...
Posted by bolino (from Toledo, OH) on August 11, 2007 at 8:37 AM:
I talk to my plants all the time. I sometimes sing love songs to them.
...
Posted by gardenwife (from Newark, OH) on August 11, 2007 at 3:44 PM:
Kathleen, you turn a good phrase. I really enjoyed the article. Thanks for renewing my perspective on the "chore" aspect of maintaining my pretties.
...
Posted by lauriegayle (from San Diego, CA) on August 13, 2007 at 10:52 AM:
As a newbie to Dave's garden, I just want to say thanks for such a lovely article.
I used to cut the roses as soon as they started to fade, but as I age myself, I'm beginning to see the beauty if the faded rose and I leave them until they are ready to go.
...
Posted by HollyAnnS (from Dover, PA) on August 13, 2007 at 11:40 AM:
What a lovely article. I'm a planter and a weeder and a waterier. But deadheading is something I rarely do, even though I understand how much better my Garden will loo( and how much better my flowers will bloom. To me deadheading is really the next step. It is truly tending your garden. It is the step that ma(es you truly a Gardener.
...
Subject: Good reminder
Posted by Starzz (from Newcastle, ON) on August 10, 2007 at 7:05 AM:
I enjoyed reading this, thanks.
I find it somehow soothing, to go and deadhead quietly in the morning..especially the daylilys.
Cheers,
Carol
...
Posted by makshi (from Noblesville, IN) on August 10, 2007 at 7:37 AM:
I closed my eyes and could almost see my Son when he was young picking all the flowers in the yard.
...
Posted by Dea (from Frederick, MD) on August 10, 2007 at 7:37 AM:
Love your description of tending your garden in a most intimate way - so true!
Dea
...
Posted by crashbandiscoot (from Springfield, OH) on August 10, 2007 at 7:45 AM:
Nice article, I enjoyed reading it, with my morning coffee, after a morning stroll, where I dispensed of a few weeds and deadheads!
Thanks
Sandy
...
Posted by McGlory (from Southeast, NE) on August 10, 2007 at 9:09 AM:
Ooooohhhhhhh!!! I'm ready for pansy season now. Thank you for the fun reminder, Kathleen.
...
Posted by critterologist (from Frederick, MD) on August 10, 2007 at 9:33 AM:
What a great read! "Deadheading" always made me think of Martha Stewart's lecture on properly tending roses, and I figured I just wasn't that "fussy" a gardener. I had better things to do with my time -- like trying to catch up on weeding. But you're right about the relaxing, intimate interaction with your garden while you're deadheading, and I find myself doing more of it... although I tend to think of it by the less formal term, "puttering in the garden."
Thanks for a really enjoyable article!
...
Posted by BDale60 (from Warren, PA) on August 10, 2007 at 11:11 AM:
Good article, Kathleen. It makes the world's more colorful compost pile too!
...
Posted by JanetS (from Braselton, GA) on August 10, 2007 at 11:24 AM:
My grandchildren LOVE deadheading too...I have seed scattered everywhere and the most wonderful surprises every Spring/Summer. It always makes me smile to see the wonderful surprises, realizing the love that was in my garden in order to make that happen!
...
Posted by Horseshoe (from Efland, NC) on August 10, 2007 at 4:38 PM:
Nice article, Kathleen! (Now if I can just get some of JanetS' grandchildren to come over I'll be all set with flower pluckin'!)
Lookin' forward to your next article!
Shoe
...
Posted by andycdn (from Ottawa, ON) on August 10, 2007 at 6:12 PM:
While I deadhead my pansies mostly to take off the seed pods before they get a chance to grow and ripen, I also trim any stems that are getting too long. I pick a node where new growth is likely to start, to produce new stems with better flowers. By trimming 2-3 stems per plant per week, I really extend the flowering season without sacrificing too many current blooms. Great article, Kathleen!
...
Posted by staceysmom (from Appleton, WI) on August 10, 2007 at 9:55 PM:
Great article. Really enjoyed it. I love dead heading my flowers and spending time with them up close and personal like that. Looking forward to many more articles from you.
