Deadheading debate - when my marigolds failed hard after a midsummer trim

I clipped off all the spent blooms on my marigolds at the start of July like the internet said, but those plants never bounced back and barely flowered through August, while my neighbor never deadheads his and his marigolds are still going strong - do you prune for more blooms or let nature run its course?

2 comments

2 Comments

kai8071mo ago

Blame the internet for that one. I've let my marigolds go completely feral for three years now, never touch a dead head, and they form these massive orange bushes that bloom from June until a hard frost kills them. My buddy tried the deadheading method on his zinnias last year and got barely anything after August, while mine looked like a carnival exploded. The whole "prune for more blooms" advice works great if you're running a greenhouse with perfect conditions, but out in the real world where the sun scorches everything and you forget to water for two days, the plants need those old flower heads to protect the new buds underneath. Your neighbor knows what's up.

fionaa351mo ago

Three years?! I honestly can't wrap my head around that. I tried leaving my marigolds alone for one summer back in 2021 and they turned into these scraggly, leggy messes with like three sad flowers on top. Meanwhile my neighbor down the street does absolutely nothing to his patch and they're these perfect round bushes that look like they're from a magazine. I spend every weekend out there pinching off dead heads like some kind of plant servant and for what, a few extra blooms in September? Maybe I'm doing it wrong or maybe you're right and the internet has been lying to us this whole time. I'm half tempted to just let everything go feral next spring and see what happens.