My pleasure Mary! And yes, I absolutely love the clean cuts these snips make. So satisfying! 🙂

You're very welcome! Those little nippers really do the trick!

You’re welcome Barbara! I’m glad it’s helpful! 🌸🌺

You're welcome, and thank you so much for your feedback -- I really appreciate it! ❤

I get it Sharon: large patches versus a few flowers! But I hadn't yet heard of anyone using a weed eater - however it makes sense! Thanks for sharing! 👍 😄

Very true, and I say as much in the video -- especially easier if you have a lot of Dianthus plants. 👍 However, to avoid shearing off the current flowers, it's just as easy to use pruning snips. This way, you can still enjoy some flowers after everything else has been deadheaded. 🌺 😃

Garden shears make the plant invest more energy growing back verses deheading by hand!

You're most welcome Ana! 🌸

Hi Melinda -- I've had the same thing happen! The annual dianthus that I showed in the video has come back every year for at least 10 years! I only get one bloom cycle from it, unfortunately. Glad you get repeat blooms from yours! 👍💖

Same her with me. I was told that these die off in winter but made it through lower 20s for many nights. Good bargain with these!

Indeed they are!

Thanks Lorraine! 😀

Excellent! Hope it was quick yet relaxing...unless of course it was super humid out like it is here! 🥵

Hi Lumiere -- the only thing that I know that works for me is to pull those seedlings out. I also get seedlings from maples, oaks as well as pine and cedar trees that are all behind our property. I wish there was an easier way. If you cut them at the ground, often times the roots will keep on developing and before you know it -- you have a thicker seedling that is harder to pull out. I find the seedlings are easier to pull out in my mulched beds, as the seedlings don't take as much of a "hold" down into the mulch and dirt as they do in uncovered soil. Not sure if you already have mulch in your established borders, but it might be worth trying to see if that helps making this chore easier and quicker to do. I hope this helps!

Thanks Chris! 🤗 Right after I filmed this, we’ve had rain for the past several days, so I didn’t get a chance to see if I could get any seeds out of those dried up flowers. But I will definitely take a look next time I deadhead. 👍

🤣 Dreadheading is such a fantastic term! 😂 Thank you for a great laugh-out-loud moment! So grab a bunch of those little stems with one hand, and use your pruners with the other to just lop off a bunch at once. That might help? ✂In terms of how many hours per week -- that's a great question! I hate to give you the answer of "It depends" but so far this season, we've had wildfires (both nearby as well as the winds blowing the bad air down from Canada) which kept me indoors for a week. Today feels like Day 457 of rainy weather too. 💦 Seriously, we've had rain on and off every day since about one week ago, with soupy-humidity as a wonderful side effect. So this past week, I haven't been able to be out there nearly as much as I want to. Prior to all of that, I was out as much as possible. In the Spring, when it's absolutely beautiful out -- cool weather, no bugs -- my husband has many times had to come outside and suggest I come inside, after being out there all day! These days during the rainy weather, I'll sneak out and try to get something done in an hour or sometimes two hours. And then at the same time, I'm the one who films me doing my videos, as well as I edit them and everything start to finish, so some days I would like to be outdoors but am inside editing a video. But -- I wouldn't change a thing, as I love gardening and love to share my love with others -- as well as learn from others here in the comments too! (That's probably way too long an answer!) ❤

@@GardenSanity Thanks for the wonderful answer! I can just imagine your husband opening the front door and calling outdoors, "Laura! It's time to come inside now! It's dark and it's dinner time! And you probably need to take a bath!!!!!"

@@JaneDoe-vi5yc 🤣😂🤣🤣 "And you probably need to take a bath!!!!!" 🤣😂🤣🤣 The worst was a few years ago, I was very late planting my daffodil bulbs in early December...I was determined to get them all in the ground, it was dark and our landscape lighting isn't meant to "work" by, it is very dim...and he came out and wondered how I was even seeing where I was digging. I told him I'll know where I planted the bulbs when they come up the following Spring because I could no longer really see what I was doing. 🤣

Thank you Craig!

Hi Alicia, Yes you can pinch off the dried seed pods, however the little stems will eventually turn brown too. And then you can snip those stems off as well. I hope this helps! 🌸😀

That's so interesting Barb! Was it this specific variety of Paint the Town Magenta, or another variety? (Just curious!)

Yes, it can seem a bit over the top 🤣 but because deadheading Dianthus can be done so quickly, it really isn't too much. However, like I mentioned in the video, you can always just cut them all off at once -- new flower buds and all -- just to make the job super easy. You'll still get more blooms, they'll just take a bit longer to show up. 👍

Hi Joy! Yes, normally mine do. But.... last year the heat here in our area was just way too harsh. (As you know!) My Limelight Punch Hydrangea -- which is supposed to turn from white to pink to red...went straight from white to tan/brown. It was the heat: panicle hydrangeas (Little Lime, Limelight, Quick Fire, etc.) all require cooler night temperatures as the Summer goes into Fall to help with the transition from white/ivory to pink, etc. If we don't get those cooling night temps, the hydrangeas never get a chance to "rest" and it prevents those pretty colors from happening. My Limelight Hydrangea Tree did turn to pink last year, but it is more of an established tree. And my Pinky Winky shrubs did change to all pink. But my other panicle hydrangea shrubs -- like the Little Limes, didn't have those pinks either -- just a few flowers here and there out of all of them. Sadly, it doesn't matter how well we treat them because if those night temperatures don't get down low enough...we won't get to see those wonderful color changes. Fingers crossed we are pleasantly surprised this year as the season continues! (But this current soupy weather is the worst!) ❤

Hi thanks for your response. It’s good to learn from another gardener!

@joydaniel597 You're welcome Joy! ❤ Stay cool in this awful humidity!

Yes Joy, they are! Although these are low-growing, the color is still nice to see in the Winter! (Rabbits do eat these, just in case you have them like I do. So I have to use rabbit repellents around them.)

Hi Carol -- there's actually 2 answers to your question! First, in general, yes the seeds of most Dianthus are in those drying (and dried up) flowers and could produce seedlings. 🌱 Dianthus doesn't seed around easily, so starting those seeds indoors might be more successful than seeing if they "take" on their own in the garden. However, some varieties of Dianthus are protected by patents, meaning it isn't legal to propagate these plants, as they are under patent and only the breeder of these plants can propagate more of them. Once a patent expires, then it is OK to propagate them yourself. It's definitely not legal to propagate patented plants to sell them; and it's more of a gray area to propagate patented plants for one's own garden. For me it isn't a gray area: I won't propagate a patented plant, as I realize how much time and effort and research goes into breeding plants, and when a plant is protected by a patent, I respect that. So I won't be trying to keep any seed from my Paint the Town Magenta Dianthus plants because they are protected by a patent. (But if I was growing a different variety not protected by a patent, sure I might try to grow more of that plant from seed.) I hope this makes sense! 🙂

Hi PJ -- Paint the Town Magenta Dianthus can take full sun or part sun. I have them growing in both situations, and they bloom wonderfully whether in full or part sun. I hope this helps! 🌸

Hi Marie - good question! There are annual varieties of Dianthus as well as perennial varieties. And, within those categories, there are a lot of varieties as well. 😀 So it’s possible that you may have an annual variety, or that even though it is annual for some zones, it may still come back each year as perennial anyway in your zone. That happened to me with two annual varieties years ago: they had more green leaves and coloring but still returned the following year. Does the tag provide any additional wording like a plant variety name or a Latin botanical name? Maybe that will help solve the mystery! 🤞🌸

If you have a lot of Dianthus plants to deadhead, by all means (like I said in the video) use hedge trimmers. But to keep flowers that are still blooming on the plants, snips are quick and easy! 👍

As I mention in the video, if you have a lot of plants to deadhead, it makes sense to use hedge trimmers. But if you're trying to keep the flowers that are present, snips are the way to go! 👍

They sure do Bonny! ☹️ I have a “short” video (look under the Shorts category) where you can watch a rabbit I filmed just eating a dianthus flower right in front of me. 😳 Luckily they seem to leave mine alone, but I do use Repels-All around them too.

@@GardenSanity I've been getting some rabbit damage this year.

They no doubt like Dianthus since it’s nice and short. You could try spraying something instead - I use the I Must Garden Rabbit Repellent Spray too, when needed. Maybe that will help. 🤞❤️ Yesterday, in between rain storms, I went outside and chased a rabbit all over the place. 😂🙄

Couldn't understand why these visitors came?

😟😢 I guess the rabbits must also think it’s relaxing to do. Darn rabbits.

Same here. I am not happy with those bunnies! Took off all the first blooms.

Yes, I can only keep the flowers if I stay on top of using rabbit repellents. 🐰 Wish it was easier!

@@didi46 Sorry to hear that Didi. Time for some rabbit repellents as a solution? 🤞

@@GardenSanity Yes, I just bought some, and now am waiting for it to stop raining! We needed rain desperately (in southeast Michigan), but I see that the repellent needs dry weather to really work. Hopefully will get it applied this week and preserve the second bloom of dianthus. If the repellent doesn't work, then next year I'll have to try out the cloche solution. I am determined to win!

Hi there! The pruning section is about 3 minutes in length from 1:14 to 4:20, which I thought was enough time to demonstrate how to cut the tiny stems, however I’m sorry it went by too fast for you. 🙁 On any KZfaq video, you can always slow the playback speed down. This way you could watch in slow motion which might help whenever things seem too fast. 👍 Just click on the gear ⚙️ icon on the top right or lower right of your screen, then choose Playback Speed. I hope this helps! 🩷

@@GardenSanityThank you!

@@Chichimomma No problem - and I appreciate your helpful feedback! 👍You can cut those tiny stems anywhere on the stems. The closer you cut them down to the rest of the plant, the less tiny little "sticks" you'll have sticking out once those stems dry up after being cut. However, even if you have some of the dried stems sticking out -- they are super easy to pull out or also remove with snips or scissors later. 💜

@@GardenSanity Thank you very much. You have a great channel and content and a new sub. Happy Gardening🧑‍🌾

@SimbaLova Thank you so much for subscribing and again for your feedback! I’m currently editing another pruning video and I put the actual pruning example in slow motion and I think it helps. 😀🤞

Hi Alisha -- I love using my tiny garden snips, I'm definitely not a fan of shears either for such a delicate job, unless there are large patches of Dianthus to attend to. I find that the Dianthus plants pull up "with" any pulling off of the tiny heads, so I just snip them instead. I did 4 plants yesterday in under 5 minutes! How do you pull them up without bringing any of the plant "with" what you're pulling? (I'm always interested to learn from others!)

Yes I’m on Instagram as Garden Sanity - however - there’s no way I could help identify your Dianthus as there are over 300 species! There are many that look alike in photos too, so unfortunately it isn’t an easy mystery to solve. Sorry and good luck in your search! 😀🌸