Should You Cut Off Dead Marigold Blooms? Garden Pros Explain What to Do for Healthier Flowers

Key Points

Dead marigold flowers can be collected and composted, which can help the plant to flower more overall.

Marigolds often die just because they have completed their lifecycles post-pollination.

The standard technique for deadheading is to cut back to a leaf or branching stem.

Marigolds have become one of the most popular bedding flowers around, and for good reason. They’re low-maintenance and flower nonstop throughout summer and into fall, adding warm pops of color to your garden.

Because marigolds flower so often, you may find yourself unsure of what to do with dead marigold blooms when you find them on healthy plants.

To help you answer that question, we spoke to gardening experts about how to handle dead marigold flowers.

Meet the Expert

Lindsay Moss is a customer service specialist at Hudson Valley Seed Company.

Lorraine Ballato is an instructor at the New York Botanical Garden and the author of Success With Hydrangeas.

Should You Cut Marigolds If the Flowers Die?

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Dead blooms from healthy marigold plants can be collected and composted, although what you do with the plant depends on which variety you have in your garden.

Annual varieties can be cut back to the ground or fully pulled out, says Lindsay Moss of the Hudson Valley Seed Company.

“For perennial varieties such as Lemon Gem, you can either cut spent blossoms as they finish, or let it bloom in waves, trimming the whole plant at once to remove spent blossoms,” she says. “This will encourage the plant to push a new wave of blooms all at the same time.”

Why Your Marigold Flowers Died

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Sometimes, marigold flowers die when suffering from incorrect watering or weather issues.

“Usually, cultural conditions are the issue: too much water, not enough water, too hot, a cold snap, et cetera,” says Lorraine Ballato, an instructor at the New York Botanical Garden. “They are rarely eaten by creatures and insects and are not disease-prone.”

Other times, the blooms have simply completed their lifecycles. Moss says pollination is a good sign that your flowers are in their last stages.

“At that point, the petals will wither and fall, having fulfilled their purpose of attracting pollinators, and put their resources into maturing the seeds now developing in that flower head,” she says.

Although marigold plants often have flowers in multiple life stages, leaving the dead flowers alone can lead to fewer blooms in the long run.

“Marigolds will continue to bloom without deadheading but will produce less flowers overall and finish flowering earlier in the season if spent flowers are not removed,” Moss adds.

How to Cut Marigold Flowers

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The process of removing dead flowers is known as deadheading.

“The spent flowers can be snipped off with snips, secateurs, scissors, or fingers depending on what you have handy,” Moss says. “The standard technique for deadheading is to cut back to a leaf or branching stem.”

According to Ballato, how far down the stem you cut the bloom is a matter of personal taste.

“Deadheading should be directly below the flower head,” she says. “All other cuts can be anywhere along the stem.”

If you’re pressed for time or don’t have any gardening gear on hand, don’t worry—it’s not an exact science.

“Marigolds are quite vigorous and hardy, and while cutting back using the standard technique is considered best practices, they can also be cut or pinched right behind the flower head with no ill effects,” Moss says.

Read the original article on The Spruce