Question

Should I pinch off the spent flowers on my rudebeckia plant or let them be?  Thank you.

Answer
Hello Mary

Thank you for your question.

Yes, you should remove the spent blooms from most plants, unless the seed-heads are particularly attractive in the winter or you want to save some seed to propagate next year.

Cutting off spent flowers encourages the plant to concentrate all its energy on building up the bulb/roots for the next growing season, rather than making seeds.

When you remove the spent heads of your rudbeckia cut the stem just above a leaf - a) for safety reasons - you don't want to catch your face on a cut stem! and - b) it looks neater!