Pinching And Pruning.... If You're A Gardener, You Know The Pain.

Hmnn ... every gardener wants their growing plants to produce beautiful flowers. In addition, they want their plants to be full and stocky. The simplest way to do that is to pinch back the young plants. Sometimes, that includes pruning off flower buds that are just forming.  Oh, the pain of it .... for the gardener.

I hated doing it, but I had to decapitate my mini rose bush. Actually, I have 3 mini rose bushes in separate pots that I had bought on clearance after last Valentine's Day. They lived on top of my curio cabinet all winter, and in late spring I moved them outside. They grew and grew, but I hadn't pruned them back early on. They all became very tall and gangly.  I knew what I had to do. This one being the tallest, was the first to get the axe. 

On July 27th, I brought out the pruners and made a cut halfway down,  just above a 5 leafed section of branch.

Now August 12th, although still a bit too tall, this mini rose is noticably fuller and sporting new buds. On July 27th I had also pruned back the other 2 mini roses. They, too,  look much better and are forming new buds. Now on to a pot filled with annual candytuft.

July 14 this pot of candytuft was getting very leggy with smaller blooms.

So I used my fingers to make a pinch here ... and a pinch there.

Candytuft with a haircut. Not very attractive is it? I kept telling myself I must be patient.

Ta Da! August 12 and the plants are once again more compact and covered with new blooms!

Cleome! Oh, how I love cleome! I have 3  growing in a large pot on the back deck, and I also have about 10 plants growing in my Boulder Garden. Anyway, the flower heads on the 3 plants growing in the pot were starting to form seed pods. The only way to keep the plants flowering through the summer was to prune off the flowers. On July 26th, I whipped out the pruners and made cuts on each plant about 1/3 the way down to decent sized leaf node.

It's August 7th now. Above the cut you can see new healthy growth with additional side shoots. Oh, the flowers will be smaller, but there will be more of them since there is now more than one main flower stalk.  I had also pruned the ones planted in the garden and they are growing fast with branching flower stalks, too! Later in the season I will let some of the seed pods develop so I will have fresh seeds for next year.

Pinching or pruning back your plants is definitely the right thing to do. Your plants might look a bit unsightly for awhile, but on the plus side, they grow very fast during the summer. Before you know it your flowers will look great again!  It's worth the snip! 

September Musings From The Poconos ...Successes-Part One

August is gone, and September is here.  Lots of things happen in September. School starts. Beaches, lakes, and parks are no longer as crowded.  Warm, sunny days are subtly giving way to cooler, less humid days.  It's almost as if Mother Nature is saying, "Ahhh, I can finally put my feet up and relax a bit."

Me, too.  At least for a little while until Fall clean-up begins. If you have been reading my blogs, you know that I'm an avid gardener. Not always successful, but I try. At any rate, come the Fall I begin to take note of this season's gardening successes and failures. Here goes.  The successes. 

Marigolds are a staple in my garden every year.  These are Jaguar, and I also grow Dwarf French Marigolds.  I just love them.  They bloom til frost and the deer and groundhogs leave them alone.

These are Blue Star columbine. I planted them out as home grown seedlings last summer (2013) and they bloomed this summer. 

  This year I experimented with bulbs and corms.  This is Freesia that I started from corms inside and moved them outdoors in late Spring. I still have one plant left setting flowers.

Gladiolus grown in pots! I'd never grown these before and they are a sight to behold when in bloom. I just cut the last bloom yesterday.

I had to include my mini roses.  This is my only surviving mini rose plant from Valentine's Day 3 years ago.  I keep it in a pot and overwinter it in my garage. In the spring when it begins to show new growth, I re-pot it in fresh potting soil and move it out to my back deck where it can bask happily in the sun.

Bright Lights Cosmos are also a staple for me.  They are easy to grow, about 18 inches tall, and bloom from mid-summer on.  The mix is supposed to be yellow, orange, and red. I've never had a red blossom. I think I may check out seed catalogs for red ones!

Annual Candytuft.  I had tried to grow these the past few years with very little success.  I would sow them directly in the garden and they would just not grow for me.  This year I sowed seeds into a pot and Voila!  They did great!

Well, that about wraps it up for my most successful efforts this year.  Stay tuned for Part Two - the not so successful.

Happy Gardening!