Pruning is one of the important means of cultivating flowers and trees. All flowers and trees will lose their ornamental value if left to grow naturally. Pruning can not only create a good plant shape, but also regulate the reasonable distribution and supply of nutrients in the plant, prevent excessive growth of branches and leaves, and promote flower bud differentiation and bud formation. It can also create good ventilation and light conditions and reduce the occurrence of pests and diseases. The pruning of flowers and trees mainly includes the following 6 tasks:
  (1) Shortening Cutting off 1/3 to 3/4 of the tip of the branch is called shortening. Its purpose is to stop the endless extension of the branch and at the same time promote the sprouting of axillary buds below the cut, so as to grow more lateral branches to increase the flowering position, make the plant shape fuller and rounder, and prevent the hollow inside of the tree. In order to make the crown extend and expand outward and the branches of each level are distinct, the cut should be located above an axillary bud growing outward. After the bud at the cut sprouts, the extension branch of the mother branch can extend outward to the outer edge of the crown, avoiding the production of inward branches.

  (2) Thinning When the branches inside the plant are too dense, some of them should be thinned out from the base. The thinning targets are crossing branches, parallel branches, inward branches, diseased branches and old branches, to prevent the tree shape from being disordered, to make them distinct in layers, and to facilitate ventilation, light penetration and flowering. When thinning, the unwanted branches should be cut close to the bark of the mother branch, and no stumps should be left.

  (3) Pinching Pinching is the cutting or removing of the terminal bud of the branch. Herbaceous flowers such as early chrysanthemum, salvia splendens, asters and phlox need to be pinched. If they are allowed to grow naturally, they will only grow into a tall single-stemmed plant with very few flowers and will not form a round and full clump. After removing the growing point of the main branch, the plant can be stopped from growing taller and the axillary buds can be stimulated to sprout and form many lateral branches. Pinching the lateral branches can also form more secondary lateral branches, which will increase the number of flowering sites many times.

  (4) Bud removal Removing the axillary buds on the branches is called bud removal. When cultivating potted flowers with exceptionally large flower shapes, such as single-stem chrysanthemums and dahlias, in order to cultivate only one large single flower in a pot and make the varietal characteristics more prominent, the lateral buds in the leaf axils should be removed one by one in a timely manner, leaving only the terminal bud at the tip to grow. Finally, the terminal bud differentiates into flower buds and blooms, preventing the consumption of nutrients due to the growth of lateral branches. In addition to removing lateral buds, the bud removal work also includes eliminating the foot buds that grow in the potting soil.

  (5) Bud removal In order to ensure the quality of flowers and increase the diameter of each flower head, it is necessary to reduce the number of flowers. Chrysanthemums, dahlias, peonies, and peonies can produce several flower buds on one branch. If they are allowed to bloom at the same time, the flowers will inevitably be small. Therefore, after the flower buds appear, most of them only retain one main bud in the center and remove the surrounding secondary buds.

  (6) Flower thinning For most ornamental fruit-bearing flowers, the number of flowers usually exceeds the number of fruits. If the flowers are not thinned and they are allowed to grow into young fruits, most of these young fruits will fall off naturally, wasting a lot of nutrients. The quality of the remaining fruits cannot be guaranteed. It is better to thin out the overly dense flower spikes during the flowering period. However, this does not mean that the number of fruits left on each branch is equal to the number of flowers left, because not all of the flowers left will set. Therefore, the number of flowers left should be 2 to 3 times the number of fruits to be set. After the fruits have basically set (late June to early July), the excess young fruits should be thinned out.