Q Is it worth dead heading roses?

A Yes, it's definitely worth removing rose flowers as they fade. When Which? Gardening magazine trialled different ways of deadheading roses, we found that we got a staggering 1,396 more roses on three plants that were deadheaded using our best method compared to three plants that weren't deadheaded at all.

Caption: Dead heading makes roses produce many more flowers

Q What's the best method for dead heading roses?

A The best method for deadheading roses is to snip off the faded flowers just above the nearest leaf (it didn't matter how many leaflets the leaf had. The popular method of cutting to the nearest leaf with five leaflets led to far fewer blooms).

Caption: Snip off the faded rose flowers just above the nearest leaf