Does Growth Stop Completely When a Terminal Bud Is Removed From a Stem?

Primary Pruning

• Pruning keeps plants healthy and attractive by removing dead or diseased parts, shaping unruly parts or encouraging growth or bloom. It can revive an old shrub or remove nutrient-sapping suckers. Heavy pruning can set a woody perennial back for years, so savvy gardeners prune conservatively, removing no more than one-third of a branch at a time. Pinching terminal buds, called disbudding, accomplishes more subtle goals. It stops nutrients from flowing from the roots to the terminal buds, which forces them back to lateral growth nodes where they support new branches or flowers.

Shrubbery Shaping

• Pinching -- breaking a branch between thumb and forefinger -- redirects growth to the buds or branches below the break on shrubs, too. Pinch a terminal bud on a conifer by taking the light green growing tip of a branch called the candle to encourage branching in a future Christmas tree. Pinch emerging branches in spring from an old-fashioned "Annabelle" hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens "Annabelle" ), hardy from U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 9, to force more numerous, blooms.

Perennial Pinching

• Long-season perennials such as chrysanthemums (Chrysanthemum spp.), hardy from USDA zones 5 through 9, and dahlias (Dahlia spp.), hardy from USDA zone 7 through 10, might bloom sparsely throughout late summer and fall. But when terminal buds are removed until early July, dahlias explode in a cloud of blooms. Many perennials create more and more buds as terminal buds are pinched because they live to set seed, which means to bloom. Even spring perennials such as peonies (Paeonia spp.), hardy from USDA zones 3 through 8, benefit from disbudding. Removal of the terminal bud will encourage side buds to grow larger and bloom. Championship peonies, though, are created by disbudding side buds. Whichever buds are removed forces the plant to nourish others.

Won't Work

• Not all plants benefit from disbudding terminal buds. Some shrubs that bloom on last year’s wood, such as lilac (Syringa vulgaris), hardy from USDA zones 3 through 7, will not bloom on pinched branches. Lilies ( Lilium spp.), hardy from USDA zones 3 through 8, Daylilies (Hemerocallis spp.), hardy from USDA zones 3 through 10, and hostas (Hostas spp.), hardy from USDA zones 3 through 10 are examples of plants that have no lateral growth nodes. They bloom on solitary stalks or scapes. When their terminal buds are removed, they cannot develop lateral buds and the year’s bloom is lost.