Deadheading Technique #1: Leave no Evidence!
Well the time has come for daylilies (Hemerocallis spp.) to shine…blooms of all sorts of colours rising above their grassy foliage. Then, just as quickly as they begin to shine, they start to ‘un-shine’ (if this is not a word, I would like to propose it as a new one). Afterall, hemerocallis translates to ‘beautiful for a day’. These perennials look SO MUCH better when they are deadheaded to the point that, when I walk by a property with daylilies that haven’t been deadheaded, it takes everything in me to not pull out some pruners and get to work. I’ve even gone through the conversation in my head:
‘Hey! What are you doing?!’
’Your daylilies look like crap and it really bugs me, so I’m fixing them. Besides- you are getting free labour.’
’I don’t really care. Get off my property and please don’t come back.’
’OK. Sorry.’ (Said while thinking: ‘you really should care because they really do look like crap.’)
…as the inner dialogue never ends up with a positive outcome, I decide not to trespass.
Now that we established that your daylilies will likely NOT be miraculously tidied by an anal gardener, it means you should learn the techniques so you can do the work yourself!
There are a few steps to tidying daylilies. The first step is done during the bloom period. Old withered flowers are removed, as are the seed capsules. Be careful not to confuse the seed pods with flower buds. In general, seed pods are more roundish and flower buds are elongated.
A daylily with lots of flower buds and a seed pod (circled in red).
Once you have identified the parts to be removed, tidying the plant is easy!
Once the last flower has faded from a particular flower stalk we move on to the next step of tidying up the plant. This is perhaps the easiest deadheading technique which I term the ‘leave no evidence’ approach, otherwise known as cutting back the whole flower stem. Essentially you are removing the entire stem to a point below the foliage- removing all evidence that the plant ever had flowers. It is a technique used for daylilies, hosta, iris, coral bells, scabiosa among others.
A before and after look at a hosta in need of deadheading. The photo on the right is of a hosta breathing a sigh of relief that it’s unsightly spent flowers have been removed… or maybe that was my sign of relief.
So have a look at your garden- if you see any of these common landscape plants with spent flowers still clinging to them, do your plants a favour and give them a little facelift… with some simple deadheading!