The undone piping is becoming more and more obvious as the bush continues to grow. I’ll admit that at first I was guilty of being a bit lazily lazy. Let’s face it, I was putting deadheading ends together until I did a real introduction about three years ago.
Deadheading is the process by which you get the next set of blooms. It is usually done at various times of the year, as you cut your flowers on various occasions throughout the growing season.
While I did not traditionally deadhead, I have now changed my ways. It is wise to do your deadheading at different times of the year if you want to achieve maximum growth next season, or at least to get a lot of blooms for the next growing season.
So, I set out three paper lucrative-shaped schedules for the year.
The first, which I will call the “altruistic branch” schedule consists of:
1st buds – freesia, displaying a chartreuse color palette of yellow, white and deep green. These are the first you should use. They are easy to deadhead with a pair of secateurs and the pink butterfly bush that is starting to develop will help protect them from the aphids. Freesias are also great in container gardens.
2nd buds – cattleyas will now start to push up through the snow about February. You can now deadhead cattleyas with a pair of scissors, being careful not to damage the dormant buds. In the past cattleyas were harvested in the late fall for use in hedges, now they are harvested earlier in the year. Simply wait until the leaves fall completely before harvesting.
3rd buds – dendrobiums now have some real spunk going on right now. Hairs are Scottish, I think. They are longer, with a lot of brown in between them. This is also another good time to deadhead dendrobiums for an indoor display.
4th buds – some of the hemerocallis hybrids are now truly spectacular. If you have them by the bottom of the plant, you can now deadhead by pushing your thumb against the sheath. If you have found one of the hybrids with a really long bob wig, you can cut around it as long as it is still fairly young.
Now if you happen to find a really great looking bunch of blooms that you want to keep, but don’t want to go to the expense of a whole new plant, you can suck the life out of existing blooms. This is going to be the most controversial part of the article, but I’m going to give you some suggestions on the method.
Most hemerocallis fans online will tell you to cut the bottom out of an existing bloom to make the process tidier. The reasoning is that if you cut too far, the plant will try to re-grow new growth from the base of the plant. If you plant rhizomes in the ground, they will eventually spread through the ground. You can cut the bottom out of the plant once or twice a year to stop this. The plant will be healthier and less stressed. Best of all, you have created a new plant from the very bottom up.
As for the Gem or acquilegia, dig the bloom stalk out completely. Cut the stalk down to where it snapped (the very tip is fine), and then look to see what is growing from the broken stalk. If you are getting multiple stalks, you’ll probably want to choose a different plant. Cutting the stalk down to the base also makes it easier to see what is growing on the stalk underneath.
If you happen to have one of the plants that has a baby clone, you can cut the clone down again. When doing this, make sure the stem is dead, and then cut the leaves down to where the stem is. There is another method that is used to propagate these plants. What you do is cut the leaves and shovel them into a bag, add a small amount of pins/scissors, some rooting compound, and a little bit of water (the watering adds oxygen to the bag which is needed to start the cloning process). When the plant is ready, you can cut the bag open and remove the clone. You are basically trying to get a stem structure to push against the parent plant. The part that is cut is known as a terminal bud, the part that is left is a node. The next step is to find a stem that is slightly more defects than the one that you have just cut. Make a small incision on the bottom of the stem, and then on the tag it will have a tiny ‘v’. Cut the stem through that and then pull the clone out.
