Should Coneflowers be cut back when they die?
To deadhead spent blooms, follow the stem down from the flowers to the first set of leaves.Coneflowers produce many flowers per stem and will bloom again without deadheading.New blooms will appear before the top flower dies.
How do you care for coneflowers?The flowers wither or dry up during the summer and early fall.Pruning shears are used to cut them off from the flower buds.After a frost, cut down the coneflowers to the soil level.
Some of the flowers should be dead for gardeners looking for the longest bloom time.If you remove the flowerheads on select plants early in the summer after they bloom, the cut coneflowers will bloom again in early fall in response; plants that are not deadheaded provide only summer blooms.
Coneflowers grow from the central foliage mound and tap root.There are clumps up to 2 feet in diameter.The overcrowded roots do not reach the soil for enough nutrition if the clumping plants are not divided.