It's one thing to successfully grow flowers, but it's another to maintain them and extend their longevity.
Martha Stewart is showing us how to achieve the latter with her gorgeous Dahlias, which appear in full, lush bloom on her Instagram page.
'What’s an important part to keeping dahlias blooming all season long?' Martha captions the Instagram post. 'Proper maintenance and continuous deadheading to remove spent blooms, prevent plants from redirecting energy to seed production, and allow them to focus on making abundant and colorful flowers.'
Lucky for us, she walked us through the care process on her blog, and it's surprisingly easy to follow her example.
Shop the Dahlia essentials edit
This mix of 10 different dahlias is the perfect blend of colorful and voluminous flowers. They will come back year after year, for a long-lastingly, beautiful garden.
Made from the finest Japanese steel, this razor-sharp pruner is a staple in the tool bag of everyone on Martha's gardening crew. It features a vinyl-coated handle for a non-slip grip, making it easier to trim plants, allowing them to heal quickly and grow beautifully. If it's endorsed by Martha, it's good enough for us.
Wade into your garden with all of your tools using this belt built to carry a trowel, shears, gloves and more. The leather construction makes it so stylish, you might even want to wear it out of the garden.
Martha's Dahlias range in color from pink, yellow, red, and white, but in the blog post, she drives home the point that maintaining their vibrancy comes down to attentive care practices. In this case, that means deadheading.
'...as the flowers finish blooming, when petals have begun to wilt, fade, or turn brown around the edges, it’s time to deadhead, or remove spent flowers,' Martha writes. 'Deadheading through the season prevents the plants from redirecting their energy into seed production, allowing them to focus on producing more flowers instead. Ryan clips below the flower head just at the junction with the neighboring stem.'
She continues, 'Deadheading also helps maintain the overall health of the plant, keeps the garden looking tidy and prevents the spread of pests and disease.'
Timing is everything with deadheading, though, so be mindful of your routine in the garden.
'To prevent wilting, when cutting, do so only in the early morning or late afternoon,' Martha writes. 'And only cut them after they open to mature size – dahlias will not open after cutting.'
