Human Flower Project
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Of Deadheading
Will the real workingman please stand up?
Workingman’s Dead, with spent gaillardia and daisies
Photos: Human Flower Project, Spring 2007
The life of leisure is so déclassé… In our social circles, anyway, nothing puts you on the outside faster than flashing a beach tan, eating bon-bons or bragging about your latest rubdown at a chi-chi spa. Tack-ey!
No—around here we’re all WORKING! Look at us sweat…How many hours did YOU put in last week, Sister? Oh-EE-Oh. Hear the shoulder-gristle pop as we toil.
Gardeners, of course, are labor extroverts. They love to chronicle every muscle pulled in a stump’s removal and poison ivy pustule, for, among gardeners, every tribulation is a badge of honor. Truth be known, there IS a lot of overcoming in the garden, from major undertakings—like digging trenches and war on bermuda-grass—to the tasks that are actually fun, like deadheading flowers.
Exhibitionists will make even this out to be laborious, and in rare cases, it can be. Last fall we spoke with Sylvain Piperno, who works full time at the Luxembourg Garden in Paris. He told us the very busiest time of the year is June, when the flower beds all flourish, and tidying up after spent blooms takes a big staff all day, every day. But in most home gardens, and certainly our own, deadheading is actually pleasurable. Here you are, wading out with the butterflies, soaking in the sight of things in blossom. And since the purpose of deadheading is to keep plants flowering, one might even say it’s a form of greed.
We can’t help but circle back to a pregardening phase, circa 1970, where the seed for this post was planted. That was the year the Grateful Dead released Workingman’s Dead. Our favorite band at the time, they shed the tie-dye shirts and portrayed themselves as tough blue-collar guys, switching train tracks, mining coal and “chippin’ up rocks for the great highway.” Far out! All of us Deadheads loved that shtick. It implied that deep down we weren’t a bunch of students loafing around drinking wine, but hard-working stiffs with lunch buckets, living in the shadow of smokestacks and heading to the factory to earn an honest wage.
Deadheading in the garden is actually much simpler than being a Deadhead used to be, and just as enjoyable. But both, in our view, are mildly delusional.
Why Should Gardeners Deadhead Flowers?
“By deadheading the blooms, you trick the plant into believing that its reproductive task is not yet accomplished.”
And you call that work!