The Literary Gardener – June 2015

“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.”  ~ May Sarton, Plant Dreaming Deep, 1968

I agree that patience is becoming a lost art in our hectic, fast-food, fast-everything lives where value is often measured by how quickly we can get the things we want, rather than the quality of those things once acquired.

For gardeners, waiting three months to bite into a juicy, vine-ripened tomato is certainly an exercise in delayed gratification, albeit somewhat offset by that wonderfully-earthy growing-tomato smell. But perhaps the ultimate display of gardening patience is pinching off the first flowers and buds from vegetable and ornamental plants. Certainly, it takes a leap of faith to do away with new growth; however, there are times when doing so will help strengthen the plant, increase flower and fruit production, and lengthen the blooming period for flowers.

For tomato and pepper starts, it’s a good idea to pinch off early flowers before transplanting them into the garden bed and for the first couple of weeks afterward. This will enable the plants to focus their energy on first recovering from transplant shock, and then building their root systems and protective foliage. Use your thumb and forefinger to pinch off the pedicel, or small stem, which connects the flower to the larger, or main, stem. Also for pepper plants that are about 8 inches tall, pinching back the apical meristem, or growing tip, will stimulate side growth. This will lead to more branching, more flowers, and more peppers.

Tomato plants also benefit from light pruning on mild days before flowering begins. Remove suckers appearing at the point where a leaf connects to the stem to allow more air circulation and sunlight to reach the interior. Once flowering begins, pinching off some of the blossoms prevents overcrowding and allows the plant to use its energy to develop bigger, healthier tomatoes. At the end of the growing season, pinching off the flowers will direct the plant to concentrate its energy on maturing the remaining fruit.

Many ornamentals also perform better when the dominant bud is removed. Pinching back chrysanthemums and dahlias, for example, keeps the plants compact by increasing outward branching, which produces more abundant flowers. Other annuals and perennials that respond well to pinching back main stems during the rapid growth stage before flowering include: petunias, snapdragons, asters, bee balm, phlox, yarrow, Russian sage, and veronica.

Gardeners can stagger and extend blooming by pinching back some apical stems, which will delay flowering for about two weeks, while leaving others.

Don’t pinch back ornamental plants that have a single, terminal flower spike and those with leaves that grow in a low rosette rather than on a long stem. These include: columbine, astilbe, delphinium, daylily, coral bells, hosta, iris, foxglove, and dianthus.

Pinching off becomes easier with practice. Most of the time, patience will pay off with a healthier, more productive garden. Of course, there have been plenty of times when I’ve pinched back a plant that I probably shouldn’t have. Those are the times I remind myself of other words of wisdom offered by author May Sarton: “A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself.”

Jackson County Master Gardeners offer Saturday and evening classes on a variety of gardening topics. Coming up in June: In Love with Lavender, The Birds and the Bees: Attracting Pollinators, and Year-Round Color for the Rogue Valley. For class details, check the JCMGA website at www.jacksoncountymga.org.