A: Gardeners love their summer annuals for the continuous blooms and color they provide throughout the summer, though they’re not always maintenance free. While some annuals (and perennials) don’t really need to be deadheaded in order to encourage more blooms, there are many plants that thrive when expired flowers are removed. What this does is allow energy to flow back to the plant to promote new growth, plus it gives plants a more tidy look.

This need not be an intimidating process. Small hand pruners, scissors, and even your forefinger and thumbnail can be used to quickly do the job. Carefully examine how the bloom comes from the plant. Expired flowers can be deadheaded by either pinching off just the old flower or cutting a stalk (a length of the stem under the bloom) back to a node. A node is a point along the stem where new growth will sprout from.

Plants that don’t require deadheading:

Begonias, vincas, day lilies, and impatiens

Plants that benefit from deadheading:

Petunias, calibrachoa, zinnias, salvia, Knock Out roses, verbena, snapdragons, coreopsis, rudbeckias, pentas and geraniums

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