deadheading osteospermum and other flowers

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    kathydkathyd
    Greenhorn
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    What is the correct way to deadhead?  Do you cut just the dead flower head or do you cut to the next leaf or do you cut to the bottom of the stem???  I have never been sure if I’m doing it right!!  And is deadheading done the same way with all flowers???  All suggestions welcome, I’m still new to this.

    😀

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    denisedenise
    Greenhorn
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    Hi there Kathy, what I do is I always cut the stem back to the first nice healthy pair of leaves or wherever a leaf sticks out from under the flower. I usually leave about half an inch of stem, sometimes a smidgen less. In the end the portion above the leaf dies off and dries up, and then it falls off.

    But it also depends on the flower. For osteospermum sometimes if the stem looks lonely I’d cut it lower down so that it doesn’t jut out compared to others. For lavender I just wait for the season to end and shear it all off. For bulb flowers it’s best to cut the flower stem as low as you can into the bulb without damaging the leaves around it. And some flowers like bellflowers are just too small to care, and they simply disappear as new blooms appear.

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