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.

Hi Toni, I don't see why that wouldn't work for a tree of any age. Energy used to set flowers and fruit is redirected to vegetative growth. Somebody, please correct me if I am wrong. Pecanman, would Allan Vaughn, LSU extension agent, Plaquemine parish know if the 3 year mark is some sort of growth milestone? Maybe after 4 years the growth is negligable... Have a tree that you'd like to see get bigger, I suspect? Do you graft any of your trees Toni? Makibear - Everyone has a pathetic plant they have to save. Yours is the Monrovia Meyer Lemon. Mine is a tiny Rangpur Lime. So Sad. Saw him behind all of the nice healthy citrus at Orchard supply looking like a no date, pimple faced kid hugging the wall at the prom. Had to buy it. Citrusboy

I don't know if i would continue to pinch because it is so far into the season. when is your first frost in colorado? When I put mine out in the permanent pots and in the garden I took off almost all of the pods and buds and gave them heavy amounts of nitrogen for the first couple of weeks and the plants seemed to grow very well and when they started to produce more blossoms I started loading them up with phosphate yesterday was the first dose of the heavy phosphate we will see what happens. The plants that I left the pods on are nowhere near the size of the plants that I pinched. Dale

Let the tree go through the flowering cycle and enjoy the scent. Not every flower will produce fruit. Even if you get fruit, the tree will probably abort whatever it cannot handle. You will probably have some natural fruit drop in June too. During the summer, the tree may drop fruit to to some sort of stress. If you don't thin out the fruit as the year goes on, your option is to provide additional support to the branches. Don't worry about the tree having fruit to harvest until at least July.