Apical Dominance and Flower Initiation in the Rose

SummaryThe initiation of leaves and flowers by selected axillary buds of the glasshouse rose cultivar Sonia (syn. Sweet Promise) has been studied both while their extension growth was inhibited by apical dominance and after the inhibition had been removed at one of two times (“early” or “late”). Leaf initiation occurred during growth inhibition so that leaf primordia accumulated in the axillary buds. Flower initiation began, with both treatment times, only after removing apical dominance. Although the total number of leaf primordia formed before the flower was greater in plants of the “late” treatment, the axillary shoots produced in both treatments had similar numbers of leaves with expanded leaflets. Thus many leaf primordia of the “late” treatment plants became scales. The evidence suggests that flower initiation cannot begin while an axillary bud is subject to apical dominance, and that after its removal another factor results in the production of shoots with a relatively constant number of leaves with expanded leaflets.