In my neck of the woods, flower buds develop in July so, when I told a friend to prune blooms anytime she wanted, I ended with no blooms the following Spring. I should have told her to deadhead instead.

Nowadays, I do not even deadhead the blooms and just let them fall off on their own. I notice that they stay on thru Fall and most of winter. By the end of winter, they mysteriously fall and disapper.

But if you have rebloomers, deadheading the spent blooms will help produce new blooms so I would deadhead the blooms as soon as they turn brown.

This post was edited by luis_pr on Sat, Jul 6, 13 at 13:09

Cut the main stem below the bloom, down to the particular "Y" leaf junction where there are small or swollen buds right at the base of the "Y". Shouldn't be hard to notice what I speak of.

To find the particular "Y", just follow the bloom down the stem...

You may need to trim the stem back as many as 3-4 sets of leaves before you find buds, which may take you close to the crown. If so, so be it...

(The number of leaf sets you need to remove down to the next buds falls strictly on randomness as opposed to genetics or anything you may or may not have done to the plant recently over the years.)