HOW TO EXTEND YOUR BLOOMS (AND YOUR GREEN HERBS)

Now that you have beautiful colors on your patio or in your garden, how do you make them last longer? Well, by doing a little bit of maintenance before your plants go to seed.

Plants want to produce offspring, so they put all of their energy into that process. They create blooms to attract pollinators and then seeds to propagate themselves. Unfortunately for us, once they are done blooming, there's no reason to do more. It may sound a bit cruel, but we need to stop them from getting to that point, so they can put their energy back into blooming.

In your herb garden, you also (usually) don't want your herbs to go to seed, so energy is put into growing outward and growing leaves (the part you usually eat). Also, you may find that herbs taste a little more bitter after they flower, so you may want to clip off any flowers as soon as you see them. There are some cases when you may want your herbs to go to seed. For example, some people like to eat oregano flowers, but that is less common.

For your flowering annuals that just means removing dead flowers down the stem to where you see leaves.

Your spent rose blooms should be removed as you see them. For plants like rhododendrons, deadheading the spend blooms won't produce more flowers in the current season but will put energy into next year's blooms. Plus it keeps your bushes looking neat and tidy.