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Pinching
Pinching can help your
flowering plants keep their shape and not outgrow their containers.
Pinching also makes plants bushier, which often means more blooms.
You'll want to cut the
stem just above a set of leaves or new buds. Otherwise, it will
take a while for your plant to grow back. The point of pinching
is just taking a "pinch", not severely cutting back the
plant.
You can snip the ends
with garden shears or use your fingers. Pinching is best done in
the early morning before stems start to wilt in the afternoon heat.
Pinching only works on
bushy plants, not ones with a single stem. Some candidates for pinching:
- Alpine Aster (Aster
alpinus)
- East Indies Aster
(Aster tongolensis)
- Florist's Chrysanthemum
(Chrysanthemum morifolium)
- Flossflower (Ageratum
houstonianum)
- Italian Aster (Aster
amellus)
- Lobelia (Lobelia erinus)
- Petunia (Petunia hybrida)
- Sage (Salvia officinalis)
- Snapdragon (Antirrhinum
majus)
- Yarrow (Achillea tomentosa)
Be sure to stop pinching
before the bloom season of the plant, or you could cut off buds
before they get started.
Done with care, pinching
your plants can be kind.
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