Expert: Long Island Gardener - 5/20/2009

Question
QUESTION: I just finished planting a large number of salvia plants from a local nursery. They are quite large (9-12 inches) and each has a well developed flowering  stalk (3-6 inches)

I have read that when transplanting annuals its best to remove existing blooms to encourage new growth. Is this true of a plant like salvia where the bloom is a large portion of the plant? My question is simply should I remove the existing flowers or not?

Thanks for your help

Carl Meyers
Wexford,Pa

ANSWER: I don't know who came up with the idea of removing flowers to encourage new growth -- perhaps what they meant was that you should prune shoots that hold buds, thereby delaying flowering but encouraging branching and ultimately more flowers.

Most Salvias can be pinched and will respond with multiple flowering stalks.  'Pinching' science is simple: Flowering hormones concentrate at the tip of every stem.  When you remove tissue from a stem tip, the natural response is to shoot growth and flower hormones quickly to the new tip.  In other words, you stimulate growth when you cut off a step, and the growth will be wherever that cut was made.  Nodes are the little factories where these growth hormones are made.

Salvias are no different.

Nevertheless, you cause a delay in flowering when you do this.  The plant must build branches, and they must develop enough to generate buds and flowers after that.  Don't do any more pinching past July 4th.  And the sooner you stop, the sooner you will enjoy those beautiful summer flowers in your landscape.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: THANKS VERY MUCH FOR YOUR RESPONSE. JUST SO I UNDERSTAND--I THINK YOU ARE ADVISING TO REMOVE THE TIP OF THE FLOWER SPIKE--NOT THE ENTIRE FLOWERING SPIKE. IS THIS CORRECT?

THANKS AGAIN
CARL MEYERS

Answer
Each 'entire flower spike' is at the end of a stem that will form sideshoots and branches and, ultimately, MORE flowers than you have now.  You are not removing merely the flower.  You are removing part of the leaves and STEM farther down.  Think of it as pruning.

I wish I could draw you a picture.

Just look at the stem, and find those 'nodes' that hold high concentrations of growth hormones.  That's what you want to grow.  Where you cut, that's going to split into 2 or 3 stems with 2 to 3 times more bloom.  That's a LOT of flower power, Carl.

It hurts, but it works.  Do some now, some later, if you don't want to miss out on current color.  It will take a month for those spikes to form flower buds and bloom.  You'd do this on a lot of plants, including Petunias, Pansies and Impatiens.

This is in contrast to 'deadheading', the removal of spent flowers, which you should do later.  Anything that has pollen will produce seeds if you don't get rid of it.  The point of THAT exercise is to keep the plant busy making flowers, not seeds.

There's an energy drain in seed production.  The sooner you interrupt it, the more energy will be left for healthy, wealthy and flowers.

I hope I'm being more clear and I apologize for not giving you better details.  How'd I do this time?

L.I.G.