Now Is the Best Time to Deadhead Sunflowers for More Blooms

Keeping your yearly sunflower garden full of its vibrant and warm appearance comes from deadheading. This gardening task is all about removing dead flowers from your garden that are no longer blossoming or contributing to your aesthetics, so that new flowers can take their place. If you’ve planted sunflowers for a joyous summer garden and are wondering when you need to perform this task, you’ll need to wait about four weeks once your flowers have started to sprout.

Here’s everything you need to know about when to deadhead sunflowers and what you can do with the spent flowers once they’ve been cut.

When to Deadhead Sunflowers

The best time to deadhead sunflowers is late in the summer when you notice the petals have started to turn yellow or brown. You can also find sunflowers that are ready to deadhead when the petals have drooped or fallen off.

These are all signs that your sunflower has finished its blooming cycle and has already peaked with its vibrancy, which usually lasts for about 20 days. But, since sunflowers continue blooming into the fall, deadheading is a great way to have colorful sunflowers blossom again to keep the color alive in your garden.

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How to Deadhead Sunflowers

Deadheading flowers is a gardening task friendly for all gardening levels. Basically, deadheading is like pruning, but instead of shaping the plant to keep a desired shape, you’re cutting away spent flowers to bring more life into the garden.

Here are the steps to deadhead your sunflowers:

1. Locate spent flowers with drooping, fallen leaves, or ones that are yellow and brown in color.
2. On the stem of each spent flower, look down until you find a healthy-looking leaf (these appear lush and green).
3. Cut half an inch above the leaves with a sharp pair of gardening shears.
4. Throw the dead flower head away or save the seeds for next season’s growth.
5. Wait for new blooms!

What to Do With Deadheaded Blooms

Once you’ve deadheaded your sunflowers, the use for the flower isn’t completely over. There are several things you can do with deadheaded blooms once you’ve made the cut from decorations to functional purposes around your home and garden!

The easiest to turn to is decor or crafts. You can use deadheaded sunflowers for pressing or other crafts. You can turn multiple deadheaded sunflowers into a welcoming front door wreath or use them as table decorations for a natural, rustic table setting.

For outside uses, you can save the seeds for next year’s garden once the flower has dried out, but remember to store the seeds in a cool, dry place until it’s time to plant. Or, you can use the deadhead blooms to attract birds to your yard with the seeds. By hanging the flower upside down (tying it somewhere outside for the birds to get to), the flower will start to dry out, and once the seeds are mature, birds will begin flocking to the stalks.

Deadhead sunflowers also make excellent compost materials. If you have a compost pile already going, toss in the stalk after cutting it into smaller pieces.

While there are several things you can do with the spent flowers you’ve deadheaded, you could always consider leaving the flowers on the stalks. If your gardening goal is to keep your garden full of vibrant sunflowers, then deadheading is a must.

However, if you want to add more nutrients to the soil or create a unique design in your winter garden, leaving your spent sunflowers in your garden can provide these benefits.

FAQ

• Yes, deadheading sunflowers will encourage new flowers to grow if you’ve planted a multi-stem variety. Single-stem sunflowers do not produce more than one bloom, so those will not grow new flowers if they are deadheaded.

• You can deadhead ornamental sunflower varieties if they are multi-stem producing. This helps to maintain a clean appearance in your garden while also encouraging new growth.