Quote:
Originally Posted by natural
I have some dwarf sunflowers that are branching variety. This first set of flowers are spent. Is this the end of the plant or can you deadhead to create another set of flowers?
Bill
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I think it is the end of the life cycle of the plant. once the main flower has set seed the stem is far too hard to allow new growth to emerge, the center or main bud should be pinched out as soon as you can pop it off to make the other buds emerge. the tip of each stem and the main flower bud has a chemical called auxin that prohibits lateral growth from emerging but once you have pinched the end or center-main flower out... it allows the plant to make the lateral growth emerge or it allows the other flowers to make a bunch rather than a single flower ( think potted mums for a florist... they generally have to either be pinched to make a mound of even sized flowers or like the football mum you find in a florists shop... they have to be cleaned of the lateral flowerbuds to produce one spectacular flower).