Just how 'trainable" is the average plant? By 'trainable' I mean receptive to shaping, specifically, will the average plant that is becoming a biy gangly respond to pruning or pinching by maintaining a more compact shape? I'm particualrly interested in flowering plants, but I'd also like to know about shrubs. Of course, shrubs are generally designed to maintain a dense, compact form, but do they actually respond to pruning back by growing more densely?

Another way to approach the question would be to ask if plants biologically respond to pruning back of runners, or stems, that are forming away from the mass, by retarding the effort to expand such growth. If not, then pruning is merely the shaping of a plant, and not also the 'training' of it.

I'm trying to understand how to control plants that begin to maintain undesireable shpaes. For instance, I have a few potted mini-roses that I'd like to keep in as compact a form as possible. If I continually prune the stems that begin to stretch out beyond the body of the plant will it continue to try to grow in the same way, or will it essentially give up and focus on growth within it's already established shape?

"Mainly, two growth regulators determine if a plant gets bushy (shrubby) or if it grows long. The growth regulators are like two well matched antagonists in a plant, each sort of canceling out the other's total dominance. In plants that want to grow long branches & stems, the growth regulator that causes this (auxin) maintains a slight edge over another growth regulator that wants the plant to grow bushy (cytokinin) & grow branches in the crotch (axil) where every leaf occurs.

"Pinching" doesn't necessarily mean that you only "pinch out" the growing tip of the stem, you can remove a good length of the stem and many sets of leaves & it's still "pinching". It also is different than the dead-heading or de-blooming Crocosmia described.

In the growing tips of plant stems and branches (the apical meristems) and in (especially young) leaves, the growth regulator (auxin) is produced. It suppresses lateral (side) growth on the stem behind it as it flows back down the plant toward the roots. When you remove the growing tip of the stem (often along with many other sets of leaves on the stem) you eliminate the source of the growth regulator. When that occurs, still another growth regulator (cytokinin) suddenly becomes dominant and "seizes the opportunity" to stimulate growth from the crotches of leaves (axils) all along the stem. In this way, you "force" (or trick) the plant into producing lots of branches.

Soon, the growing tips of these branches are producing auxin, suppressing all the lateral growth along the stem behind it, and just generally causing the plant to grow long branches again. At this point, you simply cut back the branches or pinch out the growing tip & the plant shows you another spurt of lateral growth."

With all this in mind, the level of your pruning experience comes into play. Directional pruning is terminating a branch at a bud or smaller branch that is already pointed in the direction you want to go. There are other pruning methods, like rejuvenation pruning, or even wiring, tyeing, weighting branches to grow how we want.

This is not the natural habit of a geranium. It is being "trained" to eventually look like a small tree.

This snapdragon will one day look like a tree. (Actually, it already does, but I don't have a more recent photo.)

The roots of this schefflera have been "trained" to grow over this rock. I can now start to "train" the branches in a more pleasing shape.

This succulent looks nothing like it would typically. It usually bears a single rosette atop gangly stems. This cluster of individual rosettes is the result of learning how to produce it by pruning.

Help any?

Al