Here's why it's important to 'deadhead' and prune the vines in your yard and landscaping

The rains these past couple of weeks have been great for blooming annuals and perennials.

To keep those blooms coming spend some time in your garden removing the spent blooms, a practice referred to as deadheading. Deadheading may help some annuals extend their bloom period until frost and give you a few extra weeks of color on perennials.

It is easy to believe that a plant produces flowers so we may enjoy their beauty just as we might think an apple tree produces apples so we can have something to eat. The truth is that a plant produces a flower so it can be pollinated and produce seed.

Deadheading works because as we remove the bloom the plant responds by producing another flower in its efforts to create a viable seed. It is this cycle triggered by deadheading that allows us to enjoy the blooms for a longer season.

Most annuals can be deadheaded. Pansies, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, and celosia are a few examples, however other annuals, such as impatiens, are self-cleaning and do not benefit from deadheading. Deadheading will also work with many perennials but plants like purple coneflower and sedum which produce seed heads that attract birds and add winter interest to the garden may be best left alone.

When you deadhead, wait until flowers start to decline and then clip the stem just below, leaving as much foliage on the plants as possible. Even some trees may benefit from deadheading. Pruning off the seedpods of crape myrtle just below the last seed may produce another flush of blooms.

Late July is a great time for pruning many blooming vines. Wisteria is one vigorous vine that begs for pruning. Wisteria should be maintained with only one strong leader. From this leader will grow the leader branches which form the vine’s framework that is attached to a trellis or fence.

In July, cut off the ends of all side shoots growing from the leader branches just beyond the sixth or seventh leaf. This winter cut leader branches back to roughly one-third to one-half the branch length. Cut the side shoots pruned in July back to only one or two inches to form short flowering spurs. Continue this practice each July and winter; remove any suckers that appear at the base of the plant.

If your wisteria has never been pruned, this winter you can prune away all but a framework of a main leader and leader branches. Shorten the leader branches drastically removing crowded and poorly spaced branches. Then follow the schedule for July and winter pruning. This rejuvenation will likely result in a bloomless vine next year, but the plant should bloom again in two to three years.

Clematis is another vine that can be confusing to prune, especially since they are all pruned differently. There are three categories of clematis which is based on time of bloom: early-flowering; large-flowering, and late-flowering. Early-flowering clematis bloom from April to May from buds produced during last year’s growing season.

These vines are pruned after blooming but no later than the end of July in order that the plant has enough time to produce new buds for next year. Large-flowering hybrids bloom in mid-June on last year’s wood and often re-bloom in late summer on new growth. Remove dead or weak stems in late winter or early spring.

After the vine blooms in June, you can deadhead bloom stems or cut the plant back to 12 to 18 inches to force new growth for the re-bloom period in late summer. Late-flowering clematis are the easiest to prune since they bloom on current season’s wood.

In early spring, cut the plant back to 24 to 36 inches and the new growth will produce blooms, depending on the species from June to fall. When pruning clematis during the growing season, be sure to water, fertilize and mulch the vine after pruning.

Just a little maintenance will produce long lasting results with many of your flowers.

P. Andrew Rideout is the UK Extension Agent for Horticulture and can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: How do I deadhead and prune my vines?