Why Do Flowers Need Pinching? Detailed Explanation of Reasons and Effects

Pinching means removing the terminal bud at the tip of a branch to weaken apical dominance and encourage more branching. Pinching can promote the sprouting of axillary buds or inhibit leggy branch growth, making the plant grow sturdy and attractive, with an increased number of flowers.

Herbaceous flowers whose axillary buds sprout easily or whose adventitious buds germinate easily are mostly suitable for pinching, such as snapdragon, petunia, cosmos, scarlet sage, marigold, globe amaranth, China aster, phlox, pot marigold, and coleus. Plants that are already short or have abundant branching should not be pinched. For general herbaceous flowers, such as scarlet sage and snapdragon, after the seedlings are planted out, when the plant height is about 10 cm, the tips should be pinched off to encourage more branching and more blooming. Also, for plants such as wax begonia and chrysanthemum, the seedlings should be pinched after planting out. However, for some plants in which pinching would reduce the number of flowers and make the flowers smaller, such as garden balsam, cockscomb, corn poppy, and California poppy, pinching is not suitable. Some woody flowers are mostly pinched in spring when repotting or when the main branches are growing vigorously, which can accelerate the formation of branches, such as pomegranate, Chinese rose, plum blossom, poinsettia, and bougainvillea.