Are the deadheads left on your roses after the flowers are spent making your garden look like it has been forgotten about?

Many plants such as roses love a light prune over the summer after most of the flowers you can see are dead or dying. Pruning deadheads on your roses before they drop their seeds can encourage new flowers as your plant desperately tries to spread their mature seeds before the season ends for the year. This means more colour in your garden in the form of blooms.

You can give some plants up to 3 or 4 light prunes over the summer period to maximise the amount of flowers that appear before the growth slows or stops completely over winter. This will depend on the species and health of the plant, as well as the water and nutrients it has access to.

Save a hard prune for the winter months, between June and August while the plant is dormant in areas like Templestowe, Victoria. Over summer it is time to just do light pruning of this year’s growth.

See our Garden Maintenance page for more advice.