No Time to Deadhead? These Flowers Bloom and Bloom Anyway
Feeling lazy? Plant these flowers.
Some gardeners love to deadhead, while others find it boring. If you’re in the second group, fear not! There are many flowers that keep blooming without having to deadhead, or remove spent flowers.
The main reason to deadhead is to encourage plants to keep blooming throughout the growing season. A plant’s job is to reproduce and create seeds for the next generation. If you clip off the faded flowers, the plant puts its energy into pushing blooms instead of forming seeds. It also neatens up your garden, flower beds, and containers.
You can deadhead both annuals and perennials. However, not all flowers need deadheading; these are called “self-cleaning” and will produce plenty of blooms whether or not you get out your clippers and go to work. These plants can simply be left alone to bloom and bloom without a second glance.
With plant breeding, even many old-school favorites, such as petunias, no longer require deadheading to push new blooms. For busy gardeners, flowers you don’t have to deadhead save you one more chore so you can turn your attention elsewhere in the garden (because there’s always more to do out there!).
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Ahead, the most beautiful annuals and perennials you don’t need to deadhead:
Angelonia
Light: Full sun
This pretty annual, sometimes called summer snapdragons, comes in various heights from 12 to 24 inches in shades ranging from pure white to pinks, purples, and bicolored blooms. It's an excellent container plant.
Read more: 25 Best Annual Flowers for Your Yard
Begonia
Light: Part sun to full shade
Begonias come in an array of sizes and forms, but their blooms are absolutely nonstop! Look for hybrid varieties, such as Dragon Wing, which are especially eye-catching.
Read more: 30 Best Summer Flowers That Bloom All Season
Lantana
Light: Full sun
For a tough-as-nails plant that doesn’t mind heat and humidity, add lantana to window boxes, beds, and containers. Plus, butterflies love this annual!
Read more: How to Make a Butterfly Garden
Columbine
Light: Part to full shade
This early to mid-spring bloomer has lovely, intricate-looking flowers that are a source of food to early season pollinators. Leaving the spent flowers and the subsequent seedpod intact allows the plant to drop seeds that grow into new plants next spring.
Read more: 31 Best Perennial Plants for Your Yard
Lobelia
Light: Full shade
Lobelia has striking white, pink, or purple blooms that drape elegantly over the sides of pots. Typically an annual that fades in summer when temperatures soar, new varieties such as ‘Heatopia’ can handle hot summers and still look good going into fall.
Read more: These Are the Best Plants for Planting Under Trees
Nemesia
Light: Full sun
Nemesia has tiny snapdragon-like flowers in brilliant shades of pink, white, peach, purple, yellow, and peachy-orange. This annual likes full sun but benefits from afternoon shade in hot climates.
Calibrachoa
Light: Full sun
These cheerful annuals resemble petunias but are an entirely different plant. They drape beautifully out of containers and window boxes. Hummingbirds love them, too! Best of all, they come in every color you can imagine from sunny yellow to hot pink and deep purple.
Cuphea
Light: Full sun
Hummingbirds absolutely adore the tubular-shaped blooms of this annual. Cuphea also doesn’t mind heat and humidity and will bloom all summer as long as you keep it watered and fertilized.
Read more: 27 Flowers Hummingbirds Adore
Heuchera
Light: Full sun to part shade
Grown mostly for their colorful foliage, heuchera do send up small flower spikes in early to mid-summer. You can leave the flowers intact as they fade on this perennial, or trim them for a neater look.
Impatiens
Light: Full shade to part sun
Impatiens are the darlings of the shade garden, adding bright pops of color in various pink, white, and salmon colors. Choose newer varieties, such as ‘Beacon’ impatiens, that are resistant to downy mildew, a fatal disease of these plants.
Read more: 26 Best Shade Annuals for Those Bare Spots in Your Garden
Petunia (some types)
Light: Full sun
In the old days, you had to pinch off spent blooms to keep petunias blooming. But new types such as ‘Supertunia’ and ‘Wave’ petunias just keep blooming with zero deadheading. They’re available in every color imaginable and don't mind heat and humidity as long as you keep them watered and fertilized.
Torenia
Light: Shade
Torenia is most eye-catching when draping over the edges of window boxes and hanging pots. The tubular flowers of this annual are a favorite of hummingbirds.
Lobularia
Light: Part to full sun
Lobularia, also called sweet alyssum, is a low-growing plant with tiny white, blush pink or purple flowers that have a sweet honey scent. Pollinators love this annual, and it looks amazing tumbling out of window boxes.
Astilbe
Light: Part shade
The feathery flowers of astilbe are attractive as they dry. These perennials also provide good winter interest, so they’re worth leaving intact in your garden.
Coneflower
Light: Full sun
Coneflowers come in an array of gorgeous colors, and pollinators love them. The cheery flowers of these perennials provide beautiful structure (and food for birds) in the winter garden. They’re also a great addition to a cutting garden.
Read more: How to Design a Cutting Garden
Allium
Light: Full sun
With their whimsical ball-shaped flowers, these spring-blooming bulbs add a punch of fun to the garden. The flowers dry well and look great in the garden or in dried arrangements.
Read more: The Best Spring Bulbs for Your Garden
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