If you spent the summer growing your dream garden, you might be tempted to grab your shears and start trimming now that fall is here. But before you snip away, take a pause. Not all flowers should be deadheaded this season, and cutting too soon could mean losing next year’s blooms.
What should you do instead, and when is the right time to cut these blooms? We asked the experts. Here are four flowers you should never deadhead in the fall.
Hydrangeas
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No matter the color, hydrangeas are a great way to add beauty and sophistication to your garden, but not all should be pruned or deadheaded at the same time. “Newer types like Endless Summer bloom on fresh growth and can be pruned in the fall,” says Martin Hackney, horticulture expert and managing partner at Hackney Nursery. “However, traditional hydrangeas should be left alone until after flowering.”
Foxgloves
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Foxgloves are usually biennial or short-lived perennials, meaning they flower once and then set seed before dying. So, for continuous blooms in your garden, interior designer and avid gardener Grey Joyner of Grey Joyner Interiors recommends letting at least some foxglove stalks turn into seed pods.
According to Joyner, you should avoid deadheading until seeds have developed and ripened—letting the dried flower stalks stay through fall will yield seedheads that can self-sow.
“You can cut back the bulk of the spikes after flowering to keep things tidy, but leave a few for seed,” Joyner says. “If you cut all the flower stalks in the fall, you won’t have new plants coming up next season—remove spent foxglove blooms only in early fall after collecting ripe seeds, rather than a hard prune that kills the whole stalk.”
Azaleas
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If you grew azaleas over the summer, it’s highly suggested to put away those shears for now. According to Hackney, deadheading azaleas in the fall isn’t a good idea. “Traditional varieties already formed next year’s buds over the summer, and fall pruning removes them,” he says.
Joyner advises pinching or cutting off faded blossoms just after spring flowering (by early summer), so the plant can redirect energy into new bud formation. “In fact, many evergreen azaleas don’t need deadheading at all,” she says. “Just give them a light trim right after they bloom to shape the bush, but wait until then (not fall) to tidy them up.”
According to Hackney, there is one exception to this azalea rule: The Encore variety can be pruned anytime.
Forsythia
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Forsythia is a spring bloomer that flowers on last year’s wood, so it begins forming next spring’s flower buds by mid-summer. “Pruning in late season would shear off those buds,” Joyner says. “Trimming forsythia too late in summer or in fall and winter will result in a loss of flowers the following year.”
It’s best to prune forsythia immediately after it finishes blooming in spring, explains the designer. “At that point, you can cut back old, crowded stems to ground level, but come autumn, simply leave the shrub alone,” she says. “By skipping fall deadheading (or any heavy pruning), you ensure your forsythia will be loaded with yellow blossoms come spring.”
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