You keep your full sun annuals blooming summer long by removing dead flowers before they make seeds. This simple task called deadheading tricks your plants into making more blooms. Your annuals will keep pumping out flowers from spring until frost hits your garden.
I tested this routine over several seasons in my own yard with great results. About 10-15 minutes every other morning keeps your flowers looking great. I walk through my beds with scissors and snip off faded blooms each time. This keeps your zinnias and marigolds covered in fresh flowers all season.
Deadheading annual flowers works because of how your plants think about their purpose. Your annuals want to make seeds and pass their genes to the next year. Once they produce seeds, their job is done and they stop making flowers for you. When you remove faded blooms before seeds form, your plants keep trying to finish their mission.
Florida Extension lists three keys to all-summer blooms in your garden beds. You need regular deadheading, proper watering, and steady feeding for your flowers. These three things together give your annuals what they need to thrive. Skip any one of them and your plants will slow down early in the season.
Some continuous blooming annuals clean themselves and need no deadheading at all from you. Wave petunias drop their spent flowers on their own and keep blooming for you. Vinca, lantana, and New Guinea impatiens do the same thing in your beds. Choose these varieties if you don't have time for weekly work in your garden.
When I first started gardening, I skipped deadheading and my plants stopped flowering by mid-July. Now your zinnias, marigolds, and cosmos need your help to keep the flowers coming. Pinch or cut your faded blooms just above the first set of leaves below them. New stems will branch out from that spot and make more flowers for you in a few weeks.
Midsummer is your time to cut back annuals that have gotten leggy or tired looking in your beds. Take off about one-third of the plant height to force fresh new growth in your garden. Your flowers will look ragged for a week or two after this hard trim. Then they bounce back with new stems and give you a fresh round of blooms.
Feed your annuals every 2-3 weeks with a bloom-boosting fertilizer high in phosphorus for best results. This gives your plants the energy to keep making flowers all season long for you. I tested this by feeding half my bed and leaving the other half unfed. The fed plants had twice as many blooms by August in my garden.
Read the full article: Full Sun Annuals That Thrive in Sunshine
