Keep your flowers looking great all season by deadheading them. This simply means removing the spent flower after it has bloomed. Typically, after a flower blooms it starts to look droopy or wilted. Removing these wilted flowers keeps your plant looking neat and it also encourages new flowers to grow. If a wilted flower is not removed from the plant, the plant will begin to focus on producing seeds. When this happens, your plant will ultimately stop producing flowers.
Many annuals respond very well to deadheading.
zinnias
petunias
marigolds
dahlias
pansies
geranium
gerbera daisy
When deadheading petunias, I hold the stem of the flower between my fingers and pinch off or cut the stem below the flower. I usually pinch it down to the next stem (just below where my fingers are in the picture to the right) because it is neater but, you don't have to be exact as long as you remove the seed pod.
Petunias tend to be sticky so you may want to use garden shears if that bothers you.
When deadheading pansies, I put my fingers lower on the stem and pinch or cut (with gardening shears) a couple of inches below the flower. I usually take 2-3 inches of the stem off because it looks neater.
Don't leave the flower pieces laying around because they will rot, look ugly, and may attract bugs.
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