DEADHEADING  ROSES
Author: Hanna Swanepoel Who doesn't love the fragrance and beauty of a garden full of flowers, especially roses? But then there comes a season of wilting and dying where the beautiful rose blooms are no more. This is especially sad if you only have a miniature rose plant as a houseplant for company and no garden. Growing conditions and your intervention has much to do with rescuing your plants' life indoors and outdoors.
Deadheading (removing wilted and dead roses or blooms) of flowers will not harm your plant. When a rose or blossom is dead, it's all part of taking care of your beautiful roses. More flowering is encouraged by deadheading roses, and it stops the plant from producing seeds. With deadheading, the plant's energy instead produces more beautiful roses in your garden to cheer you up.

It might be a painful process for you and your plant. Still, it will give you many blooms, improve the overall appearance and neatness of your rose bushes, and add a fragrant and colourful attractive garden, providing joy to you and many helpful insects. And will give you many blooms throughout the year in the growing season and helps your rose plant to live longer. Deadheading or pinching the spent flower blooms encourages the plant to produce more flowers (or repeat flowering), and all the plant's energy will go into making a new flower. As well as all the essential water and nourishment will go to the parts where the plant needs it the most- to produce your beautiful garden in full bloom.

The rose plant conserves energy. Keeping wilted and even dead flowers on the stalks will result in fewer or no blooms in the flowering season, a sad plant, and eventually death. Spent flowers can also be used as compost.

Does it mean I can do this same procedure in my garden for all flowering plants? Yes! This is a necessary approach for the benefit of all flowering plants.
How it's done
  • Use gardening shears or scissors and gardening gloves; although this is not pruning in itself.
  • Sterilising shear blades by rubbing them with a cloth dipped in alcohol will prevent the spreading of fungus or disease.
  • Although it may vary from the type of rose variety, the general way to do it is to remove/ cut or snip the rose above any foliage, just about at the end of its stem. Usually, you look at the top set of about five leaflets and cut the thicker stem just below those leaflets. The entire bloom can also be cut lower to any thicker stem (but bear in mind that deadheading is not the same as pruning roses).
  • Also, remove the cluster of roses (Spray Rose varieties etc.) when the cluster has finished flowering/spent if you have that type, or in phases as each bud is spent.
  • Make sure there are no hidden flower buds in the way of your shears.
  • Cut the stems of spent roses that cross each other in the centre, or near the centre of the plant, especially miniature roses.
  • Scrub roses do not need deadheading often, as they take care of themselves. It's wise to clean them up a bit and make the scrub look healthy.
  • How often? Make it a habit, and this garden chore will not become a dreaded overwhelming chore to do if all your roses are spent. Do this throughout the flowering season.
  • Whenever you see a spent rose, once a week or every couple of days, during early spring and throughout the growing season until the beginning of winter.
It may seem tedious, but it will be well worth it, and your rose plant will look tidier and healthier, giving you the most fantastic maximised blooms and fragrances for more seasons.