Should you cut spent blooms from red hot pokers to keep them blooming?

Question

After the bloom fades, I know seeds are being produced, but should they be cut back to keep blooming? The stalk is really unbecoming, but should I leave the stalk so that the seeds can fall for next years plants?

Answer 1

If you want to promote more blooms, then you should deadhead the faded blooms. If you want to have the plant naturally reseed for next year, then do not deadhead but leave the blooms on the plant so the seeds can mature and spread. Flower blooms that have been removed early enough to promote more blooms will not produce viable seed. These two activities are usually mutually exclusive.

The only other option is to deadhead only until the blooming cycle has slowed down, and then allow those blooms to naturally fade and the seeds to mature and fall on their own.

Happy gardening.

Answer 2

Just pull the spent flowers off. THis is called dead-heading. And yes, it does promote blooms. The whole purpose of flowrs is to attract pollenating insects, so that seeds can be made. Once this happends, there's no more incentive to bloom. Dead-heading makes the plant get busy making more flowers.

Answer 3

'deadheading' any flowering plant will keep it bloomiing and growing and spreading in size. if you really want the seeds...allow the cut off spent blooms to lie on the ground where you'd like them to sprout in the future.

Answer 4

Cut them off unless you want them to reseed for next year. I hope this helps.