The short answer has two parts:
The first is mainly aesthetic, you remove the finished blooms so you can enjoy the remaining flowers. The second part is to trim the bush back in a way that encourages new blooms plus maintains a bush with an overall compact shape.
What is deadheading, anyway?
Deadheading is simply the removal of finished rose blooms in order to encourage further budding and improve the appearance and vigor of the rose. It’s a summertime maintenance procedure, usually done weekly.
The best time to deadhead a flower is when its appearance begins to decline. The frequency of deadheading a particular plant depends on the life span of its blooms. This can range from one day to 10 days, depending on the species.
The weather also greatly affects longevity as hard rains and unseasonably hot weather can take their toll on blooms.
I learned as a volunteer early on that doing this regularly causes the plant to keep putting large amounts of nutrition into blooming, rather than turning its spent flowers into fruit and seeds.
When dead blooms are left clinging to flowering plants, they sap the nutrition and strength from the core of the plants and rob them of energy. Deadhead the repeat-flowering roses but not once-flowering ones.
How to deadhead roses
There are two main choices in deadheading.
- Removing the brown finished blooms so you can enjoy the remaining flowers without interruption.
- Trimming back further down the stems to encourage new blooms and it also helps to maintain a compact shape to conserve energy.
Large flowers
Removing a finished single bloom from a flowering head
How:
Cut off the finished flower to a healthy sideshoot or outward-facing bud. Leave any remaining buds or blooms to continue flowering. Works well on hybrid teas.
When:
Do this as required throughout the flowering season, typically May-September.
Bushes with flower clusters
Bushes with clusters of flowers need each spent cluster to be cut off back to a bud or side shoot rather than just the finished flower.
How:
Remove the entire flowering head by cutting the stem just above the first leaf with five leaflets.
Once all flowering heads have been removed, cut any overly tall stems back to the height of the rest of the plant, creating a nice rounded shape.
When:
Do this throughout the flowering season, after each flush of flowers, typically May-September.
Deadheading Climbing Roses
Climbing roses will usually have a second flush of flowers in late summer if you deadhead them like single stem bloom roses.
The rambling rose varieties flower only once a year so it’s best to let those bushes produce hips when they’re ready, to color your garden in autumn and provide food for birds.
Wild roses
Wild, or species roses such Rosa Rugosa with its simple five-petal blossoms, also have only one flowering period, so there’s no point in deadheading them unless you want to tidy up.
It’s a good excuse to stay away from those thorn-filled canes anyway.
Old Garden Roses
The Historic, OGR, or Old Garden Roses such as Alba, Bourbon and Gallica roses – are well known for their gorgeous scent. But these are, like the Wild Roses, just once-a-year performers, so we only prune these to tidy up.
Keep Your Eyes on Disease and Insects Too
And while you are deadheading keep an eye out for summer problems
Black spot, which is caused by fungus, from overcrowded canes.
- -Cut off the affected shoots and spray the rest of the plant with fungicide.
Powdery mildew, which is mostly caused by overcrowded canes.
- -Cut off the affected shoots and spray the rest of the plant with fungicide.
Aphids – greenfly and blackfly
- They will suck the goodness out of your plants and leave it susceptible to diseases.
- Just get a damp cloth and wipe them off rather than using a bug spray, or you will kill off the ladybirds, lacewings and other beneficial insects too. You need those little guys.
Suckers – new canes shooting up from the area of the crown
- Just cut them off close to the ground.
- If your rose was grafted, the suckers might yield completely different flowers.
Rubbing canes
- Scarring a cane will encourage spots for disease & insects
Layer mulch at the roots.
- Spread it an inch away from the crown to keep it dry.
- Monitor that the bed is full of 3 inches of coarse mulch.
Late Autumn = No Deadheading
In many community and home gardens, ‘no deadheading’ guidelines apply in the autumn. It is very important to let the hips develop on the plants for the plants to start their hibernation cycle – and for wildlife to enjoy during the winter months.
Also, some rose species have very large, decorative hips and present a beautiful display against the bleak garden during the winter.
Birds enjoy perching on canes and snacking on brightly colored hips. This is crucial food for them in the winter.
Deadheading Tools
When you deadhead, you should use sharp pruners and secateurs so you don’t damage the stem with a dull blade, and you should wipe them clean after every plant so you don’t transfer disease from plant to plant. Lysol & water 50/50 is a good disinfectant.
I use ratchet pruners from Ironwood Tools or Barnel for the thick cane work & their long-nosed secateurs for the actual deadheading of small stems, blooms, and canes.
If I get a nasty big cane I can even use the secateurs as pliers to hold one end while I dispatch the cane from the other end. Sneaky smart. . .
These little nylon ratchet pruners are one of my secret weapons for deadheading
They will cut up to 5/8″ canes with ease and you can snip smaller ones using the tip without engaging the ratchet. This does the heavy part of the deadheading, and it’s fast.
These pruners can be delivered quickly from Ironwood Tools.com
Aluminum needle nose secateurs
These are my go-to deadheading cutters. Even though they’re bypass style, they work well for this with little fatigue.
Secateurs can be delivered quickly from Amazon.com
Helpful products to get started
Sturdy gloves
These gloves can be found easily in your local Home Depot
Aluminum ratchet pruners
These pruners can also be delivered quickly from Amazon.com
Muck bucket
Sturdy buckets can be found easily in your local big box store
More details about good rose tools is this tool post
Volunteering to teach – and learn
Conversely, if you see a group doing some deadheading, stop & ask a few questions about the details.
They may give you some pruners to try it yourself.
I like to deadhead weekly as a volunteer with my local Rose Society in community gardens and local hospitals.
Many gardeners find deadheading enjoyable and relaxing. It can also be meditative and therapeutic. I’ve met people from all parts of the world in gardens where I was deadheading.
I always kept an extra pair on hand for several reasons because I was trimming 1000 bushes a week in multiple gardens in my county during the peak weeks.
And if you’re lucky, you meet some new friends with rose talents to help you learn even more about rose culture, like I did.
Nothing is more rewarding for a rose gardener than watching the garden come to life with beautiful blooms and practicing the task of deadheading throughout the season, when it is needed.
Nature will reward you with a bi-weekly wave of blooms to enjoy, even more so for some bushes – and will occasionally reward you with the resurgence of a plant that will surprise you by boldly blooming from week to week.
Sources: Wikipedia, ARS, Ironwood Tools, HomeDepot.com, TacomaRoseSociety
