A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum deadheading

So I have some beautiful dianthus this year, very bushy and full of blooms... late spring was gorgeous. I know they're supposed to bloom throughout the summer, but last year I did not deadhead them & they did okay on their own. Does anyone know if I should deadhead them to encourage more blooms? And if so, how far should I pluck them back?

Even though they can have a long bloom time when left alone, if you wait until it's pretty much completely bloomed, you can shear it back and it may bloom again in late summer/fall. Deadheading each indivual flower can be very tedious.

Amen Alankhart!! I have Petunias.. lots of them.. including a HUGE, probably 3X3 hanging basket... and it is like a full time job deadheading that baby!!

I also have Dianthus and I always deadhead it.. I think deadheading anything makes it bloom more, doesn't it?? I deadhead my Portulaca too.. I deadhead everything.. can't stand to see the old wilty flowers left on the plant.

I love exchanging seeds so I'm not a big fan of deadheading but what I'm trying to do is keep some of each species for harvesting seeds and then some I dead head.

since dianthus is a biennial I'd suggest leaving a few blooms in place to set seed so that they can self seed and keep the clump going.

Thank you all for your advice.... the plan is now to do a little of everything (shearing, deadheading, and just letting go) and see what I come up with. Hopefully I can load a picture or two to show you how pretty they are in a few weeks.