Most people assume the name is a baking thing. A pinch of salt. A pinch of sugar. Cute for a bakery, sure — but that's not actually where it comes from.
Pinch is a horticultural term. It's one of the simplest, most satisfying techniques in gardening, and it costs you nothing but a few seconds and a willingness to remove something that looks perfectly fine. We named the shop after it because it captures something we really believe: that small, well-timed interventions make an enormous difference. That knowing when to hold back is sometimes the whole skill.
And if you've walked past our accessible entrance on Sherman, you've already seen the plant that inspired it — there's a big pink cosmos right on the awning. It's hard to miss, and we did that on purpose.
What is pinching, and how do you actually do it?
Pinching means removing the growing tip of a stem — the soft, new growth right at the top — to redirect the plant's energy outward into side shoots rather than upward into height.
For most soft-stemmed plants, you really can do it with your fingers. Find the growing tip, locate the set of leaves just below it, and snap the stem cleanly just above that leaf node. That node is where the new branching happens — so cutting to a node is the whole technique, not an optional detail. For anything a little woodier — think basil that's been in the ground a few weeks, or salvias — a pair of clean, sharp snips will do a better job and cause less damage to the stem.
The important part is cutting back to a leaf node, not just snapping things off willy nilly. It matters where you make the cut.
What pinching actually does
Here's the part that feels counterintuitive until you see it happen: you remove growth in order to get more of it.
When a plant has one main growing tip, it puts most of its energy into getting taller. Remove that tip, and the plant doesn't give up — it redirects. Two or more side shoots emerge from the nodes below, each of which becomes a new branching stem. Do it again a few weeks later, and you double up again. The result is a bushier, fuller plant with significantly more flowering sites than it would have had if you'd left it alone.
For flowering annuals and perennials, more stems means more blooms, and pinching early in the season can extend your flowering window by weeks.
When to pinch
The window is early — ideally when plants are young and still actively putting on new growth, before they've had a chance to get leggy or set their first buds.
Here in zone 6b, that generally means late May through mid-June for most annuals and early-season perennials. You want to catch plants when they're maybe 15–20 cm tall and still building structure, not when they're already reaching for the sky. If you've missed that window, a light pinch can still help redirect energy — it just won't have the same transformative effect as an early one.
One pass is enough for most plants. For annuals you really want to go big with, a second pinch three to four weeks later is not a bad idea at all.
Who to pinch (and who to leave alone)
Annual flowers are where pinching really shines. If you're picking up annuals at Wears this season — and their selection is worth the trip — a lot of what you'll find there responds beautifully to an early pinch: petunias, zinnias, salvias, dahlias, and of course cosmos. (Worth noting: all of those are annuals in zone 6b, meaning they won't overwinter outside — but that's exactly why you want to get the most out of them while the season lasts.)
About that cosmos: that's our logo plant, and the one on our awning, and it is a genuinely enthusiastic responder to pinching. Left alone, a cosmos will shoot straight up and give you one tall stem with a flower at the top. Pinch it early and you get a wide, branchy plant covered in blooms from midsummer until frost. One stem becomes many. Which, if you think about it, is the whole point — and also a decent description of what we're doing on Sherman Ave, where a bakery and a plant shop grew from the same place.
Herbs are another great candidate, especially basil. If you let basil bolt and go to flower, it gets bitter and woody fast. Pinching the tips regularly — and removing any flower buds as soon as you see them — keeps the plant producing fresh, flavourful leaves all season.
Perennials like mums and New England asters can be pinched in early summer to encourage bushier growth and more flowers later in the season. Cut them back by about a third around the solstice, then let them go. You'll get a fuller plant and more blooms come fall.
One note if you're working with perennials you just planted this spring: give them a pass this year. Newly transplanted perennials spend their first season focused on building roots, not top growth, and pinching asks them to do the opposite. Let them settle in, and come back to it next season when they're established and ready.
A few plants you should not pinch: anything that blooms on old wood — lilacs, forsythia, weigela — will lose next year's flowers if you cut them back at the wrong time. Single-stem growers like larkspur don't branch the way annuals do, so pinching won't do much for them. And climbing plants generally have their own agenda and will pursue it regardless.
One more thing: don't throw those cuttings away
A lot of what you pinch off can be propagated into new plants — which I think is pretty cool, and also free.
Soft-stemmed cuttings from annuals like petunias, salvias, and impatiens will often root readily if you pop them into a glass of water or directly into moist potting mix. Strip the lower leaves, leave a node or two submerged, and give them a week or two. Not every cutting will take, but enough will that it's worth trying — especially if you want to fill more containers or share with a neighbour.
Basil cuttings root in water embarrassingly easily. If you've never tried it, put a few stems in a jar on a sunny windowsill and check back in ten days.
So that's the whole idea.
A small, well-timed intervention. Your fingers, or a clean pair of snips, back to a node. One stem becomes many, one bloom becomes dozens, and a plant that might have peaked in June is still going strong in September.
Good things grow.
Stef is the co-owner of Pinch Bakery & Plant Shop at 183 Sherman Ave N in Hamilton. She offers Growing Consultations for homeowners looking to get more out of their outdoor spaces.