Deadheading roses involves removing faded flowers to divert the plant’s energy from producing rose hips, to making more flowers. Deadheading roses will keep them looking their best throughout the season. Faded flowers can make a plant look tatty and, after rain, they can turn into a soggy, slimy mess. This can encourage fungal infections that may lead to stem die-back.
For many roses, deadheading is essential to keep them blooming and stop them looking untidy. In the video clip, above, Alan Titchmarsh deadheads roses, explaining effective deadheading techniques.
When to deadhead roses
Deadhead roses as and when you need to, when the flowers start to fade and look tatty. You can deadhead individual flowers or clusters of flowers. The sooner you deadhead the roses, the sooner new flowers will appear, as the energy the rose is using to make rose hips will be channelled into making new flowers.
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Find step-by-step advice on deadheading roses, below.
You Will Need
- Secateurs
- Gloves
Step 1
For multi-flowered roses, take off each flower from the cluster as its petals begin to fall, snipping with secateurs or pinching it out. This will keep the plant looking good while the rest of the buds open. Once all the flowers in a cluster have finished, remove the whole stem.
Step 2
When deadheading roses with single-flowers, snip off the flowerhead and around 15cm of stem, cutting just above a strong, healthy leaf. Your next flower shoot will grow from that leaf joint.
Step 3
Rambling roses, which usually flower once during the season, can be pruned straight after flowering. Here’s how to prune a rambling rose.
