If there’s anything better than one dahlia bloom, it’s two dahlia blooms.
Or three.
Or four.
While often prized for their stunning colors and uniquely shaped blooms, dahlias also happen to be one of the most productive plants you can add to your cut flower garden.
The trick to maxmizing the number of blooms?
Pinching.
Pinching involves removing the tip of the main stem to encourage lateral growth, resulting in more branches and ultimately more flowers. Think of pinching like pruning for flowers: by removing specific growth at a specific time, you encourage the plant to produce more of what you’re wanting to grow. In the case of fruit trees, that would be fruit. But with dahlias, it’s flowers.
And more flowers mean more opportunities to reach our in kindness in our communities, fostering goodwill and connection.
We’re all about gardening more efficiently and easily producing more blooms: because more blooms in our gardens means more opportunities to cut those blooms and reach out in kindness, giving the gift of not only beauty and kindness but connection and goodwill.
Here are some of the reasons why you should pinch your dahlias:
Promotes Bushier Growth:
When you pinch a dahlia plant, you remove the dominant apical bud at the tip of the main stem. This action signals the plant to redirect its energy to the lateral buds, stimulating their growth. As a result, the dahlia plant becomes bushier, with multiple branches sprouting from the main stem. The increased branching leads to a higher number of flower-bearing stems, ultimately resulting in a fuller and more impressive display of blooms.
Increases Flower Production:
Pinching is a powerful technique for maximizing flower production in dahlias. By encouraging lateral growth, you promote the development of more flowering stems. Each of these stems has the potential to produce beautiful blooms, multiplying the overall number of flowers on your plants. Whether you're growing dahlias for personal enjoyment or aiming to create stunning floral arrangements, pinching is a key method to achieve an abundant harvest of vibrant and captivating flowers.
Prolongs Blooming Period:
Pinching not only increases the number of usable stems but also extends the overall blooming period of your dahlia plants. Since the plant becomes bushier with more lateral branches, the flowering stems are distributed throughout a larger area. This results in a more staggered and prolonged blooming period, as different branches and flower buds reach maturity at different times. As a result, you can enjoy a continuous supply of fresh blooms for a longer duration.
Improves Stem Usability:
Unpinched dahlias will produce one central (apical) bloom thats born on an extremely thick, hollow stem. These massive (oftentimes over an inch in diameter) stems are not desirable for design. With pinching, your plant instead puts its energy into developing lateral stems whose thickness and increased length both make them better for design.
While the benefits of pinching your dahlias are many, there is one drawback…when. you pinch out the apical growth in your plant, you direct the plants energy to producing lateral stems. This means it will take an extra week or two for a pinched plant to produce blooms than an unpinched plant. But trust us: the benefits far outweigh a little extra wait time!
Now that you’re sold on the importance of pinching your plants, let’s walk through the process. While it’s one of the easiest tasks you’ll tackle in your garden, there are a few tips that will ensure correct pinching.
Step-by-Step Guide to Pinching Dahlias
Step 1: Timing:
Pinching should be done when the dahlia plant is 8-18 inches tall and has developed three to four sets of leaves. It's important to pinching early in the growing season to allow sufficient time for the plant to recover and produce an ample number of flowering stems. That said, it’s equally important not to pinch TOO early: if your plant hasn’t developed sufficient leaf growth and you remove too much of that leaf growth too early it won’t have the capacity to sufficiently photosynthesize. Anotther really important reason to pinch early is to prevent “hollow stem”. If your dahlia is pinched very late in the season, the apical (center) stem becomes hollow. The bigger this hollow, the easier it is for unwanted water and pests to settle in and cause damage.
Step 2: Identifying the Central (Apical) Bud:
The apical bud is located at the very tip of the main stem. It is usually the largest and most dominant bud on the plant. Take care to identify it correctly before proceeding to the next step.
Step 3: Pinching Technique:
Using clean and sharp pruning shears or your fingertips, gently remove the apical bud by cutting or pinching it off. Make the cut just above a set of leaves or lateral bud. This process signals the plant to divert energy to the lateral buds, prompting new growth. We know this feels so counterintuitive, it really is the kindest cut!
***To prevent the spread of virus or disease, always sanitize your clippers between each plant. Carry a cupful of 1:10 bleach and water solution or use disinfecting wipes to wipe your ciipper blades between plants.
Step 4: Watch Your Stems Multiply
Here’s the fun part: once you’ve pinched your plant, check back in a few days. You’ll almost immediately notice the lateral stems developing. We know it felt like murder cutting off the top of your plants, but as soon as you see the abundance of hearty growth, you’ll rest assured you set your plant up for success.
One important note:
Dahlia plants very rarely develop at exactly the same rate, even if you’re growing exactly the same varieites. This means that if you’re growing a number of plants, you’ll want to monitor and pinch as each plant reaches the optimum height/leaf count. If you’re growing a handful of dahlias, this is a relatively easy task. If you’re growing hundreds, this can be a little trickier. If you’re growing an extensive number of dahlias, you can wait until the majority of plants have reached the ideal height and pinch them all at once.
So if you’re looking for a simple, easy, FREE strategy to multiply your bloom production and encourage stronger plants, look no farther than pinching.