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Glite Dictionary
🎸 Grateful Dead fan 🌸 To remove flowers 🚆 Empty vehicle trip 😴 Unproductive person 🌸 Flower remover
to deadhead

to deadhead

2 6.1
To remove dead flowers from a plant to help it make more blooms
  • verb
  • /ˈdɛdˌhɛd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : quitar las flores marchitas
  • Leafy plant trimming, such as cutting back perennials in the fall, deadheading annuals, and any old annuals that might be getting swapped out from season to season, is strongly encouraged to be added to the pile.
  • deadhead flowers
  • deadhead roses
  • deadhead spent flowers

Examples

  • Once I noticed that he was deadheading some pink begonias on the kitchen table.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • I need to deadhead the daisies to promote new blooms this summer.

  • But I do need to get out here and deadhead the the geraniums.

  • I need to deadhead the veronicas.

    Blog text (2)

  • Try to deadhead as regularly as possible to encourage continued flowering.

    Blog text (22)

  • And that's kind of how you would deadhead larger blooms like dahlias, zinnias, branching sunflowers, things like that.

  • After the flowers wilt, it's important to deadhead them for a healthier garden.

  • To keep your hydrangeas blooming, remember to deadhead the faded blossoms regularly.

Synonyms

to pinch
vsto deadhead
5 6.1

Cut off the tip of a plant shoot to make it grow more branches

removes faded blooms to encourage continued flowering
to disbud
vsto deadhead
  • Specialized
8.9

To remove some flower buds from a plant so the remaining flowers grow larger

removes spent blooms to promote more flowers rather than larger ones

How Thorough

to prune
6 3.4
to deadhead
  • Specialized
2 6.1
to pluck
77 3.5

Surface Forms

deadhead infinitive
deadheaded past
deadheaded past participle
deadheading present participle
deadheads third person singular

Morphology

deadhead = dead + head (semi-transparent) = dead + head

The meaning is built from 'dead' + 'head' in a fairly direct gardening sense, but the specific horticultural use is somewhat specialized.

Etymology

Deadhead comes from dead ('withered') and head ('flower top'); gardeners cut off the dead 'head' of a flower to help the plant make more blooms. So to deadhead is to remove faded flowers to encourage new growth.