Should the small flower buds on a newly bought rose seedling be cut off? An expert gardener answers

Spring is a good season for growing flowers, and it is also the peak growing season for roses. Many friends who love roses buy young rose seedlings in spring to care for them. Whether bought at a flower market or online, we must choose the seedlings well, because choosing the right seedling is the first step to success in growing roses. No matter how fertile your pot is or how good its air permeability is, if your rose seedling is not chosen well, then even the cleverest housewife cannot cook a meal without rice.

I heard some flower-growing friends say that the seedlings they just bought already have some small flower buds on them, and they do not know whether to cut them off. They want to cut them off but cannot bear to. Actually, they should be cut off. We often say, to gain, you must first give up.

We all know that roses are a variety that blooms in multiple seasons. Generally, as long as new shoots grow, they will bloom, though of course you have to rule out the case where your rose is severely lacking nutrients. So after the rose we bought arrives, we must be willing to cut off the flower buds. Especially for nutrient-cup seedlings with poor roots, we absolutely must not let the small flower buds on them bloom, otherwise a "stunted seedling" phenomenon will occur.

Why does the stunted seedling phenomenon occur? That is because rose blooming consumes a large amount of water and nutrients. If your nutrient seedling originally has underdeveloped roots, its absorption capacity is already poor. If you then let the flower buds on the seedling open, they will absorb a large amount of nutrients from the seedling. This is not good for seedling growth, and thus the stunted seedling phenomenon occurs.

So if you want rose seedlings to grow well, then the small flower buds they come with, or the small flowers they open, must be cut off.