Planting a garden is half the battle. From the day your garden is planted, it will require maintenance to keep your flowers blooming and looking good all summer long.
Most flowers benefit from having their spent flowers removed. This is called deadheading. Flowers that repeat bloom will often do so only if the old, dying flowers are removed. If they remain on the plant, they will go to seed and stop producing flowers. Even many flowers that bloom only once per season benefit from deadheading, because the plant puts its energy into strengthening itself instead of producing seed. Some exceptions to this rule are plants like Astilbe or ornamental grasses, that bloom only once, but continue to look attractive with their drying seedheads.
Sometimes it is best to just remove the spent flower bud when deadheading, as in the previous page with Centurea montana. However, when each flower is on its own stem, it is better to deadhead the entire flowering stem, rather than leaving a gangly, headless stem attached to the plant. Here a Scabiosa stem is being cut down to the base of the plant.
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