How to Deadhead Daisies | Continuous Summer Blooms

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He loves me, he loves me not – forget splitting petals! Just snip off those spent blooms, because learning how to deadhead daisies will truly multiply your blooming season and volume!

And let’s be honest, who doesn’t love more flowers?!

The process of deadheading merely involves removing spent or fading blooms from the plant. Keeping your daisies fresh and removing spent blooms encourages new flowers to grow and keep growing.

Removing spent blooms - deadheading Shasta Daisy
Removing spent blooms – deadheading Shasta Daisy

Deadheading daisies is one of those tasks that even the kids can do. It’s rather quick and easy, but sometimes our busy lives don’t leave time for everything.

Whatever the case – be sure to deadhead daisies when you DO think of it and you’ll be rewarded with more flowers for a longer blooming season.

To deadhead or not to deadhead – Let’s get into the long and short of it!

Should You Deadhead Daisies?

Yes, you should learn how to deadhead daisies if you would enjoy a longer blooming season with more daisy flowers. Deadheading daisies signals the plant to increase production of flowers. This is what you want!

If you wish to save seeds from your daisy plants, you may wish to deadhead in the beginning of the growing season and then lay off until it gets later and closer to fall. This way, you leave some room for the next season of daisy seeds to mature.

Pinching daisies to remove deadheads
Pinching daisies to remove deadheads

When to Remove Spent Blooms

As soon as you notice faded blooms, you can safely snip them from your daisy plant. The only reason to leave on the spent daisy flowers is if you wish to save seeds for the future. Remove spent blooms from your daisies as often as you notice them for optimal results.

How to Deadhead Daisies

How do you deadhead daisies? It’s probably much easier than you think!

Just follow these steps to encourage even more blooms for your Shasta daisies, Livingstone daisies, Cape Daisies and other favorites in the Asteraceae family.

Brown spent daisy blooms ready for deadheading
Fading and brown daisy deadheads need to come off unless you’re trying to save seed.

Cut spent blooms from the plant when they fade.

When deadheading daisies, you give the plant a special signal to keep blooming and produce even more flowers!

  1. Identify daisy blooms that are past their prime. Remove faded blooms to improve the appearance of the plant and encourage continuous blooming.
  2. Use scissors or handheld pruning shears to snip off deadheads. The daisies will be so much happier without the dead weight! (You can also pinch if you’ve got a strong thumbnail!)
  3. Discard the dead daisy blooms and look forward to new ones! Deadheading daisies extends the blooming season and keeps your garden looking lovely even longer.
Deadheading Shasta Daisies by Hand
Deadheading Shasta Daisies by hand

Cut fresh daisies for indoor arrangements.

It would be a shame to grow all the beautiful flowers but not show off any in a bouquet or arrangement. Cutting fresh cut daisies for yourself or a special someone will also send the signal to produce more daisy blooms.

  1. Cut the flowers you want for the arrangement. Select fresh blooms – those that are just starting to open, or buds you can tell will open very soon. Clip the ends on a 45-degree angle.
  2. Remove the leaves up to the waterline. Leaves submerged in the vase will likely rot, so be sure to remove them gently.
  3. Fill a vase and add the flowers. Arrange the flowers as you wish in a vase. Be sure to fill it sufficiently with water.
  4. Watch the plant so you can deadhead daisies as needed. You’ll likely only harvest some of the blooms at a time. For the others, continue deadheading daisies when you notice spent blooms on the plant.
Shasta Daisies in Bloom
Shasta daisies in bloom

Benefits of Deadheading Daisies

Deadheading daisies offers numerous benefits. First, you get to enjoy a tidier garden with neater plants. No longer will you deal with raggedy, scraggy dead blossoms. Next, you actually encourage more flowers on the plants you deadhead. While not all plants require or benefit from deadheading, daisies do.

Deadhead away!

Deadheading Daisies - Remove Spent Blooms from Shasta Daisies
Tidy up by deadheading daisies to give a fresh look to your flowerbeds!

Final Thoughts: Deadheading Daisies

Deadheading daisies offers wonderful benefits in the garden. More prolific blooms are always a joy! Better looking plants are, too.

Still, there’s one more thing to consider as far as deadheading daisies. Why not to deadhead daisy plants!

Why Not to Deadhead Daisies

Something else to keep in mind – if you wish to gather seeds from your plants, you will need to leave some of the blooms intact on the plant. Do this well before the last frost so the seeds have time to mature and become viable.

A mature daisy seed head turns brown. You may notice a crack in it as well. Leave the spent blooms on the plant until they meet this description if you wish to save seeds from your daisies.

Of course, you can always buy daisy seeds or daisy plants from the nursery or garden center – problem solved!

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Beautiful Shasta Daisies after Deadheading
Beautiful Shasta Daisies after deadheading

If you enjoyed this post about how to deadhead daisies, be sure to check out our post on how to deadhead African daisies. (They’re so stunning!)

Here is some additional similar content you might like:

Do you grow daisies? Have you tried deadheading daisies to improve blooming? Let’s chat all about it in the comments below!

07.02.22 – Updated to increase photos to full size and add new photos. Added captions, link to another deadheading post, and selections of daisy seeds.

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4 Comments

  1. My daisy bloom only once.I remove spent flowers, hoping for more, and it doesn’t bloom again, same thing last summer. Any ideas on what to do?

    1. Hi Ann, I’m so sorry to hear it’s not blooming more than once. What gardening zone are you and which type of daisy do you have? Look in the leaf joints to see if any new growth is starting as that will be a good sign. Perhaps it is too hot – I do know they may slow down a bit if the temperatures are extreme. On the other hand, is the daisy getting enough sun? Do you fertilize at all? These are my current ideas, but please update with the type of daisy and a photo if you have one. (you can email me as well.) Best wishes and happy gardening! – Kate

  2. I have large daisies in garden .I don’t no what to do They have gone brown like pods .Should I had deadheaded them earlier? It has been very hot weather but watered daily .I want them to make a border as my garden is very large and I am getting to old to keep my garden tidy without the work I have tried for at lest 3 years to have a wild look with cornflowers poppies etc buying boxes of wild flower seeds but nothing is happening .My health in not good .I would like to look out my patio window and see plenty wild flowers as I am not out much now .Please help .I need flowers that come up every year .tall ones .Kind Regards .Help .

    1. Hi Evie,
      Sorry to hear about the large daisies not working out as you’d hoped. My thoughts are that it’s been so hot lately, that the daisies might be unhappy with the extreme temperatures. Or, if they’ve made the brown seed pods, they’re working on producing viable seed. If you look closely, do you see any tiny blooms starting anywhere?

      The wildflower garden sounds gorgeous. I’ve recently discovered a trick with cornflowers – refrigerate them for 5-7 days in a wet paper towel inside a zip-seal baggie and that helps the seeds germinate! Then you can let them get a little bigger, harden off and plant them out.

      I am happy to share some of my favorite flower suggestions for a low-maintenance garden! (Also, so sorry to hear about your health and hope you can feel better soon and be comfortable.)

      Have you tried any other perennials? I would recommend different types of coneflowers (echinacea) that will come back every year. I recently found some on clearance at Lowes! They come in different colors and will come back and multiply for you. I have 3 different kinds at the moment – tres amigos, cheyenne spirit, and wild berry. But there are so many colors to try! Daylilies could be another fine choice, although mine didn’t bloom as much this year as they usually do.

      Although they are annuals, Zinnias are one of my favorites. They are tall and gorgeous and require very little care. So many amazing colors and types to consider. You can fill a whole garden bed with nothing but zinnias and it looks amazing. Despite the fact that you have to plant them every year, they are easy to grow and take very little time. You can break up the previous year’s flower heads to drop seeds where you want them and many will bloom merely by falling to the ground or you can “scratch them in” as my dad says. Zinnias will make prolific amounts of flowers that you will love seeing in your garden and they forgive you if you don’t get to water them much – very drought tolerant. As a bonus, they will attract pollinators and wonderful garden friends like monarch butterflies, black swallowtail butterflies, bees, and even hummingbirds! I highly recommend this for your enjoyment!

      Another annual option – cosmos will readily reseed themselves, producing many “volunteers” so this is another great choice for such a garden. Good luck and happy gardening!
      – Kate

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