We are having a strange winter, aren't we. Snowdrops in bloom already and tulips foliage poking up through the soil, a good 6 weeks early. So, pinching buds? I believe this is often done with young own root plants to encourage the rose to put effort into roots rather than top growth....but it has always seemed far less necessary with bare-root plants. However, if we are attempting to keep a rose in some sort of dormancy because of the likelihood of later freezing weather, I must confess to having no luck at all doing this. At present, Madame Gregoire is thrusting out a multitude of new leaves from every bud....and obviously, I am just going to ignore it because there is no way I can maintain a growth stopping momentum over the next 3 months. To be honest, Nik, I am less than scrupulous with my pruning regimes, doing it when it is handy....and I hardy ever wait till forsythia is in bloom. None of my roses ever seem to resent late cold, although the incipient growth does get blackened and frost-killed....in other words, nature does the pinching for me. I am aware I have not really answered and it might be that it matters little in a temperate climate (I would expect those in those freezy zones have to be more careful) but for you and I, I would just leave it alone because even if you pinch them off, another lot will be along in a week or so.

I dont snip buds or blooms any longer. I will only snip pods if they develop. In fact, my Hot Hungarian Wax (second winter) has provided me with three or four rip pods over the winter and has three more immature pods on it right now. I probably won't let any more set from here on in though. My Twilight continues to bloom heavily but I don't think any have set so far. My Orange Tree Habanero has grown from 2.5 feet tall to almost well over 5 feet tall now and is just now starting to put out buds since the last time I trimmed it back in about December. I wouldn't bother snipping buds unless they set. Bruce

I always pinch off the flowering stems of the Coleus, because it does tend to at least slow down further growth, but ours are always grown as annuals, due to our cold winter climate. I have one indoors doing fine now but they tend to get leggy and attract pests indoors. I have seen them grown as a tree, about 5 years old and 3' tall with a nice, straight trunk. It will not die from going to flower, it just slows growth and causes some leaves to die, making them look messy.

Patty you are totally right. It's just old school "grandma did it" type of gardening. I never read any scientific evidence that taking off buds helps produce larger, more fragrant or healthier blooms.... but for me, sometimes doing things old school during gardening brings me closer to my roots, memories of my family, growing up on the ranch, etc. Most of the time I'm very science minding and looking for evidence based reasons... like you Nanadoll and SoFl. Especially when it comes to something like soil or pests. But for something like pinching a bud or taking off a bit of stem/leaves to shape the rose how I want it, I see no harm in doing it the way grandma did it. I like puttering around and grooming a bit in the garden. Especially on bright, sunny days. It's soothing for me. We will see. If the tiny buds I left on Peppermint Parfait make gorgeous blooms... then I have to decide if they're healthy and gorgeous because I pinched the others... or because that's just how it would be no matter what I did. No real way to tell in this case. I will say that in my experience, thinning fruit does make the fruit that is left bigger, tastier and healthier. It still does make sense that the same would be true for roses. But again, I never read any research on it and what do I know? Ah well. My thumbnail would be a little prettier if I didn't go around slicing off little rose babies with it. Honestly, I could probably easily be converted into just letting them all do their thing! I will continue removing almost all buds from the baby bands and half the buds from the grafted roses for now. We will see how long I last!