Deadhead Dianthus?

19 years ago

Hi, All~

This is my second year of having Dianthus in my garden. I have the Jan Louise and the Horatio.

Last year, my Horatio did not flower, but this year it did (only once). My Jan Louise flowered like crazy last year, but pretty much only flowered once this year. A few of the Jan Louise are popping up here and there, but not like I remember them doing last year.

I have been deadheading the flowers after they dry up. I use my scissors or little pruning shears to deadhead.

Am I doing something wrong? Any suggestions?

Thanks for any input!

Featured Answer

xiangirl zone 4/5 Nebraska

11 years ago

I learned that dianthus only bloom when the roots are active so that's why newer plants keep blooming. After the initial bloom period I shear it back, including some of the foliage. The plant has to work to grow more leaves and as the roots grow, the plant re-flowers. It's an emotionally difficult thing to do...to cut it back, but it's worth it. Don't cut it to the ground. It has to have leaves, of course. Heidi

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Comments (6)

friesfan1
19 years ago
Hi alo2,
I have always deadheaded dianthus and gotten rebloom later
in the season.
However, I cannot tell you the names of the ones I bought
locally as annuals. I do find that my Cheap annual plants
always come back the next year, and the next, and...

Mary
z 5b KS
murtle2299
Original Author
19 years ago
Thanks! I will just keep trying and see if they get better next year.
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duluthinbloomz4
19 years ago
The cheap annual dianthus are "Dianthus Chinensis" - used to be known simply as garden "pinks". They will come back for me, too, here in zone 4. I do deadhead and get pretty much continuous bloom from the end of May until the first killing frost. I have other dianthus - Firewitch and a few other unknown types - those always seem to have one good long initial bloom period, but no rebloom to speak of even being deadheaded.
dmglittergallery_aol_com
15 years ago
I am trying to find out WHERE to deadhead. Individual flower or the whole stem????
Kez (Z7 OK)
11 years ago
I'm posting from a very old thread here, but the question of where to deadhead relates to a situation I currently found myself in. My sister used to have the most gorgeous dianthus planting which I always admired but at the time I didn't have any sunny areas to garden in. Now I do, so just a couple of weeks ago I picked up three very cheap pinks to fill in a bare spot. I was in a hurry and can't believe I overlooked paying attention to the leaves when I purchased them, but after planting I realized they had much broader leaves and generally had a more squatty shape than my sister's which had needle-like blue-green leaves with a more airy and open habit. I thought, oh well... But I soon discovered I hate the extremely 'messy' appearance of the dying flowers on the ones I got and you can't simply deadhead them by pinching off the flowers with your fingers. Those suckers do not want to come off! I figured out you have to cut the stems off with scissors some distance down from the unsightly dead flowers. I find this to be kind of a pain since it seems you are constantly having to do this because if you don't they are a messy ugly thing. I do not think my sister's plants required this. I guess i would be more tolerant of the procedure if I liked the plant better. I really don't care for their squatty overall shape. I'm hoping that as they grow, they will spread into each other and lose that effect. But next time, I'll be sure to get the kind my sister had, which I think must have been what are sometimes called 'cheddar pinks'? They really were beautiful. I guess what I bought by mistake was dianthus chinensis?