How to prune gardenia
The editor answers for everyone how to prune gardenia and the introduction of green plants and flowers with illustrations on gardenia pruning methods. Next is a comprehensive introduction.
Gardenias bloom in spring with large, pure white flowers that are very fragrant. Planting one in the room will fill the house with fragrance when it flowers. To make gardenias grow well and bloom more, pruning is essential to maintain an elegant and full plant shape. Today, let's talk about how to prune gardenias.
Gardenia pruning is done in stages. Generally, after flowering, a strong pruning is required. After flowering, promptly remove the残花 (residual flowers), and it will grow new branches from the top. The strong pruning involves cutting off the small inner branches, dense branches, and leaf buds growing from the bottom to ensure good ventilation inside. The small branches do not receive enough nutrients and will grow weakly, resulting in poor flowering. Overlong branches should be shortened appropriately to maintain a nice shape, which will encourage new side buds to grow rapidly from the top. These side buds grow very quickly in this season, continuing until autumn. Once new buds grow, we retain the two larger leaves at the bottom and cut off the rest. You can keep a pair or two pairs of leaves, preferably keeping them short to make the plant more full.
If the plant grows too long, cutting off the top will cause the whole plant to become loose. Moreover, gardenias have a characteristic where the bottom leaves fall off during continuous growth. If the branches are too long and only the top leaves are left, the plant shape will look unattractive. This pruning and topping continues until autumn. As autumn begins, we can prune once more, but after that, we should not prune anymore. The new branches grow slightly slower in autumn compared to summer. During the growth process in autumn, the top buds will gradually age, the top will gradually seal off, and flower buds will differentiate. Although the flower buds are not visible at the top, cutting them off will cause the plant not to bloom the following year.
Because gardenias bloom from the old branches of the current year, with flower buds forming at the top, pruning and topping in autumn, supplemented with plenty of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, can promote rapid growth and aging of the branches, gradual sealing of the top, and differentiation of flower buds. By the following spring when the weather warms up, flower buds will grow directly from the top and bloom.
In conclusion, pruning gardenias is crucial and must be done correctly. Proper pruning ensures that the plant has more branches, more side buds, a full plant shape, and plenty of flower buds. If pruning is not done properly or if continuous pruning and topping occur in autumn, the plant will not have flower buds and will not bloom the following spring, no matter how much fertilizer is used to promote blooming. The main reason for this is improper pruning.
The above shares a comprehensive introduction to how to prune gardenias and the pruning methods with illustrations, hoping to provide green plant enthusiasts with some relevant knowledge about green plants.