8 Plants You Should Never Deadhead, Expert Gardeners Say

Columbine (Aquilegia)

Columbines are stunning flowering plants that come in a variety of bold, vibrant colors. Individual blooms last approximately four weeks on the plant, after which the flower begins to fade and turn brown. But this is one plant you should never deadhead, according to Lotte Berendsen, an expert gardener with the PlantIn app.

“If you allow the flower to wither on the plant, your columbine will reseed itself readily, providing you with new blooms year after year,” she says.

If you deadhead your columbine, you’re not only inhibiting it from reproducing but also depriving food from wildlife. “The seeds are a rich food source for birds and wildlife,” Berendsen explains. “If you grow these beautiful flowers in your garden, consider leaving the spent blooms on the plant.”

Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia)

Lucie Bradley, a gardening and greenhouse expert from Easy Garden Irrigation, advises against deadheading black-eyed susans if you want to encourage wildlife into your garden. “Letting rudbeckia go to seed rather than deadheading will encourage finches, sparrows, and chickadees to visit to feast on the abundant seeds produced by this short-lived perennial,” she says.

Another perk of avoiding deadheading this flower is you can collect the seeds to plant the following season. Bradley says that once the seed heads form, they’re approximately 2 to 3 inches in diameter, shaped like a dark, brittle cone formed from hundreds of individual seeds.

“You could harvest the seeds at this point and sow them yourself or leave them to both be eaten by your visiting garden birds or fall to the ground to self-seed,” she adds.

Summer Snapdragon (Angelonia)

Summer snapdragons, also known as Angelonia, come in a variety of colors, including blue, purple, pink, white, and bicolor combinations. Berendsen says this plant is known to be self-cleaning, meaning that you won’t need to prune or deadhead the flowers on your Angelonia at all.

“In most regions, this plant is grown as an annual while blooming continuously from spring to fall without needing any extra care or encouragement through pruning,” she informs. This is the ideal plant for gardeners that want beautiful blooms without the extra maintenance.

Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea)

Foxgloves are the perfect addition to a pollinator garden, and Bradley says it’s a plant you can choose not to deadhead. “This is a favorite flower to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds due to their trumpet-shaped flowers, which are abundant with easy-to-reach nectar,” she says. “It’s ideal for attracting pollinators into your garden, the stems of colorful flowers will last for 3 to 4 weeks, and then it’s your decision to deadhead or not.”

“If you deadhead foxgloves, this should encourage a second flush of blooms, but these are usually smaller than the first blooms and are not guaranteed,” Bradley continues. “So you could be depriving yourself of new plants the following year.”

She says this whimsical flower can produce up to two million seeds, which readily disperse and germinate the following year near the original plant, saving you the time, effort, or expense of buying new plants. She notes that your new plants will often not be the same color as the parent plant, as foxgloves commonly hybridize and will cross-pollinate to produce different color combinations.

Be advised that foxgloves are toxic to pets, and you should always research any plant before adding it to your yard or bringing it into your home if you have furry friends.

Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella)

Nigellas are elegant flowers that feature blue-green foliage and can have blooms in blue, pink, or white. Berendsen says that Love-in-a Mist is famous for its stunning seed pods, which appear after blooming. They’re low-maintenance plants that are great to grow in containers or a cut-flower garden.

“While you technically can remove these [seed pods] from the plant, we recommend against it,” Berendsen says. “The seed pods are not just visually appealing, but the seeds also allow this annual to reseed itself for more blooms next year. Additionally, the fallen seeds will also provide food for wildlife and birds.”

Coneflowers (Echinacea)

Coneflowers are one of the best native plants you can grow in your garden due to its ease of care and benefits to biodiversity. Bradley says that you can choose to deadhead echinacea, but there are so many reasons why you shouldn’t.

“When in flower, echinacea have a distinctive ‘cone’ shaped center, hence also being referred to as ‘coneflowers’ surrounded by slender petals of white, pink or purple,” Bradley says. “If you leave these in place on their upright stems into the autumn and winter months, they still remain attractive, with the petals curing up or falling off, leaving behind the central ‘cone’ which darkens and the seeds become more visible.”

“At this point, you could cut them to use in dried flower arrangements or dried wreaths, but they are a firm favorite amongst wild birds,” she continues. “Goldfinches, pine siskins, and cardinals will happily perch on the flowerheads to devour the nutrient-rich seeds, which are a valuable food source in the colder months.”

Another reason she advises against deadheading these flowers is that they will self-seed naturally and grow again the following year. You can also gather the seeds and store them to plant in another location.

Honesty (Lunaria Annua)

Bradley states that some plants are more well-known for their attractive seed pods than their flowers, which is why she says you should never deadhead Lunaria, also known as honesty or money plant. “The seed pods of this biennial are beautiful when dry, virtually flat, and are a silver almost iridescent shade, and oval in shape,” she says.

Leaving the seed pods on the stem will allow the plant to self-seed, or you can harvest and collect the seeds for the following spring. Another perk of leaving the seed pods is that they can also be cut and used in dry flower arrangements.

While the pods are stunning, she says that the flowers are not quite as showy. Honesty plants bloom small flowers in shades of white to deep purple during late spring to early summer.

Big-Leaf Hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla)

Hydrangeas are among the most beloved flowers due to their large, beautiful blooms. Although they can benefit from pruning at the correct time, it may be best to avoid deadheading-specific types. Berendsen says that certain types of Hydrangeas, including Big-Leaf varieties, are known to grow on old wood. For this reason, it’s best to avoid deadheading flowers, especially in the fall and winter.

“The flowers can act as extra protection against frost damage for young buds that appear in spring,” Berendsen says. “Additionally, deadheading comes with the risk of cutting back the growing points for next year.”