If an eye is mentioned in the tree section, this term has little in common with the sensory organ of humans and animals. This guide tries to come up with a conclusive definition that brings home gardeners closer to the commonly used term.

The eye on trees and shrubs simply designates the buds

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  1. Eye - comprehensible definition of terms
  2. Not all eyes go out
  3. Signals for budding - natural or horticultural origin

    4. Eye - comprehensible definition of terms

    Eye is a synonym for bud, the growing point on a plant. This is formed in the summer and survives the winter in order to sprout as a leaf, flower or new shoot in the following year.

    An eye already contains in miniature all the plants required for growth as a leaf, flower or shoot. The embryonic plant is protected by bud scale leaves. As a rule, branches on ornamental and fruit trees carry a mixture of different types of buds, as shown in the figure below using a peach branch as an example.

    It is only in the middle of the growing season that one can tell whether an eye is developing into a leaf or a flower.

    Not all eyes go out

    When growth begins in spring, some eyes remain dormant. Gardeners refer to this special form of a bud as the sleeping eye. In botanical jargon, the term is proventive bud. In contrast to their vital counterparts along the shoot axis, dormant buds do not swell in spring, but remain tiny and inconspicuous. Sometimes this situation does not change for many years. A sleeping eye's only job is to restore lost plant organs, such as branches or an entire trunk.

    Signals for budding - natural or horticultural origin

    In most cases, it is only during the course of the vegetation period that it is decided which task a bud fulfills for the respective plant. In the case of numerous flowering shrubs, for example, the determination as a flower, leaf or shoot bud does not take place until midsummer. The fascinating process is controlled by internal and external factors. Plant hormones, light and temperature conditions give an eye the signal to sprout.

    From a gardening point of view, you can also influence the budding of an eye. This is done using scissors or a saw as part of a pruning. If you shorten a branch to just above an eye, growth will start at this point. As the figure below shows, the correct distance to the bud is important for the initial ignition for budding to be successful.

    An eye sprouts vitally if the incision starts 3 to 5 millimeters above an eye.

    tips

    Gardeners refer to the distance between two eyes along a shoot axis as the internode. From the distance between two buds you can draw conclusions about the importance of a shoot for the plant. Undesirable wild shoots on a grafted shrub or tree are revealed by the strikingly large distances between the leaf buds.

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Trees