...as taught to be my someone who seemed to know what they were talking about.
You may be surprised to learn that I love working outside in my yard. I have super big dreams of transforming it into something amazing. One day! I get this love of gardening from my mom. She is so good at it and used to spend hours in our family home working on all sorts of things.
So recently when she and I went to the Huntington Library in Pasadena, CA and had a chance to talk with their official rose trimmer, we were super excited! If you've never been there, look it up! The gardens are amazing and they feature topography from all over the world. Here's just a taste of what you can see there.
The Japanese gardens.
Gorgeous!
Right! So back to the roses. We were able to speak to their gardener on the proper way to deadhead roses and needless to say, we've been doing it wrong. You see, we've always thought when the bud dies, you just trim below, down a few leaves and you are good to go. Like this...
SNIP! But look how sad it looks. :(
You see, when you do this, you are actually cutting off the new tiny bud that is forming just below the dead bud.
Can you see that little pod there? That the new bud!
So what you really want to do is snip right ABOVE that piece. This allows for the new flower to bloom and does not require the plant to regrow it's stem and a whole new bud!
I've been using this technique on my own plants and I can see a HUGE difference in the way they have been growing.
Here is a close up of another stem that has not been deadheaded. You can see the new bloom coming up from right above the leaves.
One more picture to show how the new growth came up right below where I cut the old bud off. Pretty amazing stuff, huh?!
WOAH!
Did you learn something? Let me know!
xo vb