How to prune gardenias to make them bloom more
If you want to know how to prune gardenias to make them bloom more and the related content of pruning methods with illustrations, the editor will introduce the following.
Gardenias bloom in spring with large, pure white flowers and a strong fragrance. Planting one in the room will fill the entire space with its scent when it blooms. To make gardenias grow well and bloom more, pruning is essential. Today, let's talk about how to prune gardenias properly.
Gardenia pruning is done in stages. Generally, after they finish blooming, a strong pruning is needed. Remove the spent flowers promptly, and new branches will grow from the top. The strong pruning involves cutting off the small inner branches, dense branches, and the leaf buds growing from the bottom to ensure good ventilation inside. The small branches do not get enough nutrients and will grow weakly, resulting in poor blooming. The long branches should be shortened appropriately to maintain an attractive shape, which will encourage new side buds to grow quickly from the top. These side buds grow very fast in this season, continuing until autumn. Once new buds appear, we keep two large leaves at the bottom and cut off the rest. You can keep a pair or two pairs of leaves, as short as possible to make the plant more full.
If the branches grow too long and you cut off the top, the whole plant will 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 retained, the plant will look unattractive. This pruning and topping should continue until autumn. As autumn begins, you can prune and top the plant again, but after that, do not prune it. The new branches grow slightly slower in autumn than in summer. During the growth process in autumn, the top buds will gradually age, the top will seal off, and flower buds will differentiate. Although the flower buds are not visible at the top, cutting them off will prevent the plant from blooming the following year.
Because gardenias bloom from the old branches of the current year, pruning and topping in autumn, combined with sufficient phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, can promote rapid growth and aging of the branches. The top will gradually seal off and then differentiate into flower buds. By the next spring, when the weather warms up, flower buds will grow directly from the top and bloom.
Therefore, pruning gardenias is crucial. It must be done correctly to ensure that the plant has many branches, side buds, and a full shape. Only then will there be enough flower buds. If pruning is not done properly or if the plant is continuously pruned and topped in autumn, it will not have flower buds, and blooming in the spring of the following year will be impossible. No amount of fertilizer will induce blooming if the pruning is not reasonable.
The detailed explanation of how to prune gardenias to make them bloom more and the pruning methods with illustrations provided above are for reference and suggestion only.