Often, hip set is environmental as well as genetic and physical. Iceberg virtually never sets hips in the warmer areas here in SoCal, while in more coastal climates, it sets regularly. Mermaid is known to be sterile, almost never setting hips, yet right on the water in Pacific Palisades, it set frequently. Nothing ever germinated out of them, but they set. Rosarium Uetersen in high heat, has no sexual parts. Everything in the flower is transformed into petals. In milder times of the year and in more coastal climates, it is semi double and extremely fertile. As Michael said, the more double the flower, the fewer the hips set, partly due to the physical barrier of so many petals preventing fertilization as well as the reduction of the number of stamen, hence anthers and pollen by the increase in the petals. Petals are modified stamen so when you increase the number of petals, you do so at the expense of the number of stamen. Often, as in the case of moss roses, the more double they are, the less fertile the pollen is found to be. That was one of the major stumbling blocks Ralph Moore encountered and fought all those years in his attempt to create moss miniatures. Conversely, roses with fewer petals tend to be far more fertile. Exceptions being Mermaid, as mentioned before; Banksiae, even the single ones which seldom, not "never" but seldom set hips; Sally Holmes (in my climate) which CAN set them, but most frequently doesn't. There are more, but these come to mind easily. Annie Laurie McDowell virtually never sets hips. Grandmother's Hat in my climate virtually never sets hips. Jacques Cartier never sets hips, nor does it have viable pollen. Sometimes, the registrations will state whether fruit has been observed. Often, the patent information contains that kind of description, too. Even those can be incorrect for your climate. Sequoia stated in the registration for Splish Splash (NEAT mini, BTW!) "no fruit observed", yet it has set fruit regularly at my sister's house in Newhall for the past ten-plus years. Then, you have mutations. Crested Sweetheart is so double, it has so little pollen and what it does have is so infertile, it never set hips. Yet, toward the end of Sequoia Nursery, it sported to a branch which sets hips. Being once flowering, it didn't make much of a difference, except for the tidiness of the plant's appearance. So, if sterility is what you want, go for those which have hundreds of petals, presuming they will open in your area. Kim

How you deadhead clusters depends on the size of your rose and whether you want it larger or restricted in size. If the plant is still young and establishing itself, then I grab the cluster in one hand and cut through the upper part of the cluster with the other. This at least removes spent bloom and prevents the formation of hips. The rose then decides where it will produce new growth. Most cluster-flowered roses will produce new flowering wood from both below and within the inflorescence. Next pruning season, I can select where to prune. You wouldn't want to do this for exhibition roses, obviously, but for garden roses, it works fine with the vast majority of cultivars. There are the odd growers here and there that go haywire no matter how you deadhead them. If your rose is over-sized, then use deadheading as an opportunity to reduce its size by pruning to the next budeye below the cluster.

Agaphanthus blooms once per season and deadheading will not result in reblooming, but it tend to improve growth, enlargement and bloom for next year, so it is still recommended, unless you want the seeds.

A lot of it is just a matter of trying different things, Aloha, with the different types of plants, until you find out how you like doing each one. And with some of the plants timing can be a factor. For instance, I really prefer to cut the 'May Night' all the way down and wait for that second primary bloom, but, if I wait too long to cut it down and the secondary flowers are already obviously growing, I just can't stand to cut them off so I deadhead down to just above the developing spikes and let it go with the secondary bloom, even tho I know the flowers will be smaller and less showy. This year a made sure I cut it down before the secondary spikes were forming--and before the very last of the original flowers were done, so I wouldn't "be all conflicted" about cutting off "good buds!" [Gardening is a very complicated thing! :-D] Spike Veronica is similar to the Salvias, but the years I cut that all the way down it didn't have time to come back for another good show--AND the secondary blooms are already usually well developed before the primary flowers are done, so I usually just deadhead the individual flowers when they get ratty and let the secondary--and thirdary!--flowers develop even tho they get smaller and smaller! So I never get that spectacular primary bloom again, but at least I do have some color out there most of the summer! I've also tried "both ways" with things like shasta daisy, coreopsis, and the larger flowered dianthus, and generally found there isn't time for them to come back and fully bloom again, so now I just deadhead flowers as they die and allow the secondary buds to develop. That's true for purple coneflower and Rudbeckia too. For one-time blooming things like daylilies and iris I snip/break off individual flowers as they finish, and then cut the stems all the way down to the bottom when all the flowers are done. True lilies maintain their foliage all summer so when they're done blooming I cut the flower stem part and a couple of the leaves down to a place where I think it looks good--but since they're bulbs you need to leave most of the foliage on to recharge them for the following year. For one-time blooming Penstemon, like P. strictus, I just wait till they're done and cut the flower stems all the way down to the ground. Then they start to develop new shoots that will bloom the following year. With late blooming things--Agastache, Russian Sage, upright sedums, etc.--you obviously don't do anything to them until you cut them down for the year, whenever you do that. And most folks around here already know I'm big-time into cutting groundcovers down--especially the groundcover sedums. I generally cut them down to the ground when they finish blooming, which generally gives them time to develop a nice compact, good looking "mat" for over winter. A couple times I got them cut back too late and there was virtually nothing there over winter--and I missed them! Since most of the ones I have are evergreen they're one of the things I can still look at over winter. And after it's done blooming I even shear my Ajuga off down to the ground! That gets it pretty new foliage for the rest of the summer. And sometimes, since it's only semi-evergreen and can look really bad by late winter, I cut it down BEFORE it blooms, but you need to be sure to get that done before it starts to bud or you cut the "flowers" off! And I LOVE 'Waterperry' Veronica, and after the initial bloom it WILL keep blooming some with secondary flowers over the rest of the summer, but it keeps getting "taller" and really pretty ratty looking by the middle of summer if you do it that way, so I sheared mine off down to the ground about a month ago and it's coming back very nicely now and should bloom all over again--probably right about the time I'll be gone on vacation!!! You do need to get used to the idea that these things will be bare looking for a couple weeks after you cut them down, but for me that's better than having them looking bad for most of the summer--and as long as you have a good variety of perennials there's always something else to look at and, for me at least, I don't really notice the "missing stuff" all that much! I just chopped my Turkish Veronica off a little over a week ago so it's in the Missing Stuff category right now! Will be back and lookin' good for over winter! I don't do yarrow--it falls into the Who's Afraid of Virginia Creeper category for me!--so I don't have any recommendations for that stuff! (Well, I do have a recommendation, but it wouldn't fall into the deadheading category!!!) And if you're going to cut your catmint "down" now, I'd cut that stuff down to the ground--no more than a couple inches--and I'd go with about an inch! The lower foliage on that stuff usually gets pretty bad looking and if you cut it all the way down it'll start all over and should look good again. If you want to keep your perennials looking as good as possible, here are a couple basic "rules!" When deadheading cut the old stems as far down as you can without cutting off good flowers or buds. If you leave part of the old stem on the plant (a/k//a just cut off the flower itself and leave the stem on the plant) that stem is "done with its useful life" and will turn brown and look awful so you'll wind up either going back a second time to cut it off--or the plant will just stay awful looking with the dead, brown stems on it! If you're going to cut them "all the way down" make it no more than a couple inches above the ground--or accept the fact that whatever you do leave is going to die and be visible for the rest of the year! Also, if you don't cut them down all the way, some plants will develop new shoots from whatever is left of the old stem--but the "old" part of the stem will still look ratty even tho the new growth on top will look good! When I was at Paulino's we had to keep the display gardens cleaned up and one of the girls always cut things down to about a foot, and I always had to bite my tongue and just deal with the ugly 12" on the bottom of the plants when they grew back! It was quite a "display," IMO! Now I'm "working" in my own yard--and I do it the way I like it! I enjoy deadheading perennials, and for the most part it's one of the easier things to do and I can just go out and quietly sit and snip things off and toss them in my tray or pot! For me it's a nice quiet way to spend an hour in the evening, and if you do it every few days or at least a couple times a week there's never any Big Job since you're doing it a little at a time. As with most gardening, there's no "right answer!" Try different ways and decide what works best for you! And, as you mentioned, keeping some notes, at least for the first few years you're "trying things" can be very helpful! RE your concern that your yard is going to look like your "neighbor down the street"--I somehow suspect that's NOT gonna happen! And regarding your Daphne! Yes! Enjoy it while it's there! Skybird P.S. The way you do it might work for you Landed Folks who live out in the country, David, but for us poor folks who live on average--or smaller than average--residential lots, that just might wind up looking like Aloha's Neighbor Down the Street!