Bud pinching for peonies in spring like this gives a beautiful plant shape and larger blooms

14. Key early-spring care for peonies - bud pinching

This is the 14th article in the original "Peony Cultivation" column by Lanyao

After peony seedlings are bought and planted, the period until the spring of the following year is relatively worry-free and almost needs no management.

But in spring, when peonies sprout, you need to pay attention to timely bud pinching. For peonies planted in the first year, it is recommended to keep only the terminal bud and remove all lateral buds. This concentrates nutrients and helps the plant regain vigor.

Newly planted peonies usually need a 2-3 year recovery period. After the peony has regained vigor, during each early-spring sprouting period, you can pinch buds according to the plant's health condition.

For potted peonies, because nutrients are limited, in order to make the peony blooms large, generally only 3-5 branches are kept, and no more than 7 branches at most. The specific number of branches can be determined by the size of the flower pot you use.

With sufficient fertilizer and water and ample growing space, the peony can keep a few more branches appropriately.

For garden-planted peonies, the number of branches to keep can be based on how robust the plant is. Of course, leaving it alone is not a big problem either.

Bud pinching methods for peonies in early spring

Remove root shoots

For newly planted peony seedlings that are in the recovery period, all root shoots should be removed, because once root shoots grow they consume a large amount of nutrients, which is not good for the peony's recovery.

For peonies that have been planted for many years, based on the condition of the branches, if new shoots need to be cultivated to replace old branches, you can choose robust root shoots to keep and pinch off the rest.

Remove lateral buds

Newly planted peonies should have all lateral buds removed, keeping only the terminal bud. For peonies planted for many years, 1-2 lateral buds should be kept appropriately according to how robust the plant is.

For those growing well with robust branch growth, you can keep 1-2 outward-facing lateral buds on each branch. For weaker branches, keep only 1 lateral bud or none.

When pinching buds, be sure to keep outward-facing bud points. This way, the new branches that grow will grow outward. If you keep inward-facing bud points, the new branches will later grow toward the inside of the plant, which is not good for the plant's shape.

The above is a simple explanation of bud pinching for peonies in early spring. After a period of growth following bud pinching, the peony will grow flower buds. Once the peony flower buds grow to a certain size, we also need to thin the buds to avoid too many flowers opening poorly.

For the specific method of thinning peony buds, please continue to follow Lanyao's update tomorrow.

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