Re: dead heading everything?

It's hard to imagine that anything would be actually be harmed by deadheading, but for some plants it's not worth doing.  This varies a lot, and I think all you can do is figure it out by trial and error, or by asking a gardening friend (like here).  For example, in my experience deadheading the yellow perennial coriopsis (lanceolota, I think) is a lot of work and has no effect -- whether I cut them or not, they have a huge flush of blooms in June, and then shift to making smaller numbers of flowers for the rest of the summer.  On the other hand, with the annual coriopsis (my experience is mainly with the maroon-red strain), deadheading results in another beautiful huge flush of flowers.  As well as a supply of seed for next year :-).  I do deadhead my penstemons, but I can't say if it's necessary or not because I haven't tried  *not*  doing it yet <g>.
Good luck, and happy gardening,
-- Susannah

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