All About Deadheading

Sep 8, 2026

What is deadheading?

Deadheading is the act of removing spent blooms from your rose plant, usually to encourage more blooms. Learn the ideal method and the nuances of deadheading within this article.

To Deadhead or Not To Deadhead

Once vs Repeat-Blooming

While many modern roses (and even antiques) are repeat-blooming, there are still quite a few roses that only put out one full flush a year: some Antique Roses, species roses, and many ramblers. These are called "once-bloomers".

If you are unsure whether your rose is repeat-blooming, search the rose on our website and look for the information section (metafields) at the bottom, where it says "Blooms". Attached is an example of the metafields on Peggy Martin, and it says "Once", which means it only blooms once during the spring.

While some once-blooming roses can repeat-bloom on occasion, it's rarer and occurs in much smaller quantities than their true spring bloom.

Why is this important?

The importance doesn't really matter in terms of "proper care" as much as it does for expectations. If you're to deadhead your once-blooming rose once the blooms are spent, just know that it is unlikely to bloom again. In fact, this would actually be a good time to fully prune your once-bloomer, as pruning before the spring flush can reduce its blooming potential, unlike repeat-blooming roses.

The benefits of deadheading your repeat-blooming roses:

Speed up the process to encourage the next round of blooms
Overall increase the quantity of blooms
Improve the visual aesthetics of the plant by removing spent blooms
It's possible that removing spent blooms can reduce your rose's chances of getting pests and diseases, as it's removing a portion of dead material that can attract these things.

Rose Hips

Rose Hips are the fruits that roses produce after the bloom ages, petals have dropped, and this part is left on the plant. Over the course of weeks or months, the fertilized ovaries will enlarge, creating little ornaments of hips on your rose that can range anywhere between green and deep red, depending on the variety. This can be a wonderful trait if you're interested in your landscape still having some color during the winter or the peak heat of summer, or if you want to harvest them for culinary or medicinal purposes.

Not all roses produce hips. In fact, few do. If you are interested in roses that produce hips, see our collection here.

Screenshot example of where to find "Hips" within the product metafield (Madame Isaac Pereire).

If your rose does produce hips, avoid deadheading your 3rd or 4th flush of blooms to reap the rewards. The best time to stop deadheading would be about a month before extreme heat (if you're in a hot climate) or 6 weeks before your first freeze. This will give your rose a chance to set fruits, which are also amazing for wildlife during these harsh parts of the year.

Keeping the Growing Season in Mind

As mentioned above in the section about hips, seasonal needs are something to consider when deadheading. If you live in an area with extreme heat (consistently 90+ degrees), it's best to avoid deadheading at that time so that your rose isn't signaled to put on new growth or blooms. If you're 6 weeks out from your first expected freeze, this is also a bad time to deadhead, as the new growth that could be encouraged from that mild pruning can be easily damaged during a freeze.

How to Deadhead

Identify the "spent" roses, which are rose blooms past their prime- roses faded, browning, or losing petals. This could be a single bloom, or it could be a whole cluster.
Identify the first 5-leaflet on the cane (see picture). This is the first leaf you see that contains 5 leaflets on one petiole. Rather than looking at the base of the plant, you will search from the bloom downward. You will likely see one leaf, then a 3-leaflet (also shown below), then a 5-leaflet.