It’s well known that the best tip on how to attract butterflies is to have lots of flowers, and that deadheading flowers encourages more blooms to grow, but the seedheads have their uses too! If you’ve ever wondered how to attract birds, an easy way is to make your own birdseed by leaving the seedheads.
Have you ever seen an American Goldfinch? They're adorable little birds, only slightly larger than a hummingbird, and they're bright yellow, black and white. They tend to fly together in pairs. The way they balance on the seedhead of a coneflower, with the coneflower wobbling back and forth from the bird's weight, is so delightful.
In the Fall, when the coneflower's flowers are wilting, the seeds will attract lots of goldfinch. If you plant lots of coneflower, you won't even need a birdfeeder or birdseed bags! Of course, the flower itself will attract lots of bees and butterflies in the Spring and Summer too.
In addition to making seeds for birds, plants whose flowers are spent can provide shelter for insects during the winter.
Lots of people deadhead flowers just because they find the wilting unsightly, but it's the natural way of things to keep changing over time. Another example of this leaf litter. The name "litter" implies that it's a bad thing that needs to be cleaned up, like plastic bottles and candy wrappers, but leaf litter provides lots of benefits to the ecosystem. As the leaves decompose, they add their nutrients to the soil and make it more fertile. They also provide warm shelter during the Winter for lots of insects that are important to the environment; even if you dislike the creepy crawlies, more bugs means more pretty birds, like cardinals! All animals rely on each other, and the loss of one species is a tragedy for us all. The insect species that rely on leaf litter also include bugs that live underground, like ground-nesting bees (did you know that bees can be solitary, and can live in places other than hives?).
To learn more, please read this New York Times article "A Smarter Fall Cleanup" by Margaret Roach, Becca Rodomsky-Bish and Margaret T. McGrath.
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