Question
Do you just pluck the dead flower or do you snip the stem that the dead flower is attached to?

Answer
Hi Liz:
In my opinion, Impatiens do not really require dead heading. They do make seeds but it never seems to take away from the flowers. I never dead head mine and I have lush flowers until the frost takes them. I live in Canada and I plant my impatiens in the end of May or early June and the frost takes them usually in early October, and at the end of the season is when they are best. I do however pick off any seed heads I happen to see. You cannot mistake them for flowers because they look completely different.

If you do dead head, pinch flowers off at the small stem, just behind the flower and this is what you should do with most annuals that grow off of a small stem. Just removing spent flowers isn't dead heading, because you only remove the flower not the seeds. The seed pods are a little ball,right behind the flower. If a flower grows at the end of the main stems them like Marigolds then you remove the flower because the seeds pods and flower are all in one.

Happy gardening                  Myrna