To maintain them healthy, pest- and disease-free, and to promote blooming, most houseplants benefit from at least a little shaping. Here is a little tutorial on how to prune houseplants.
Our homes are now filled with beautiful greenery, from the lush and leafy to the little and succulent, thanks to the huge variety of interesting houseplants that are now easily accessible and even the most exotic species rather straightforward to hunt down.
While we adore the urban jungle aesthetic, which even inspired an Instagram hashtag, we still require some space in our houses. So how can we prevent all of our priceless plants from being overgrown? The answer is, of course, with some careful pruning.
To maintain their attractive looks, most houseplants benefit from at least a little shaping. Pruning will improve the appearance of your indoor garden by addressing any arising structural issues and promoting new development. Additionally, since well-maintained plants tend to attract fewer pests and illnesses, it goes without saying that dead leaves and damaged or diseased stems must be removed.
Of course, indoor plants are less impacted by the seasons than their outdoor relatives. Houseplants can be lightly pruned at any time of year, even in the winter. However, if you’re considering a more significant reshaping, late winter or early spring are the best times to start. The additional daylight hours of spring will give the plant the boost it needs to recuperate.
Always use reputable pruning tools, and keep their edges sharp. Stems can be crushed or torn by blunt blades, leaving the plant susceptible to disease. For the plant, a clean cut is considerably healthier.
Pruning should be done carefully if you want to change the shape of your plant. Before opting to chop, take another step back and turn the plant to see it from all sides. It will take a while before a stem that provides symmetry, fullness, or balance is lost and replaced.
If you want to encourage new growth, trim a stem that is too long above a leaf node. Cut as near to the main stem as you can, or directly at the base of the plant, if that’s how your plant grows, if you’re completely removing enormous stems.
The goal of pruning is to create a natural appearance. As a general rule, don’t remove more than 25% of the leaves at one trimming, and if you’re unsure, leave it alone. The best course of action is to try to prevent a dramatic reshape by remaining vigilant.
Many plants—especially ones with flexible stems, like the philodrendron, a popular plant on Instagram—can be kept in shape by routine pinching out. Use your thumb and forefinger to do this, or a precision instrument like our Orchid Snips. To prevent the plant from growing leggy, simply pinch out the growing tips of the stem.
Every flowering plant has its unique bloom cycle, so before you prune, it’s best to do some study on the flowering plant you’ve selected to avoid damaging the flower buds. For example, mature Phalaenopsis orchids can be trained through pruning to bloom once more on an existing plant stem, but a young plant will bloom on a new stem for the following bloom cycle, hence it is preferable to simply cut off the spent stem close to the plant’s base. Prior to pruning, do some research on your specific plants, but as long as you time it correctly in the bloom cycle, pruning might stimulate your plant to flower profusely.
Although trimming can assist to give your houseplants a pleasant size and shape, any attempt to keep a Swiss cheese plant (monstera deliciosa) in a six-inch pot is bound to failure. Of course, the maxim “right plant, right place” is always a good rule of thumb in any gardening.
Therefore, start pruning for houseplants to create a lush, leafy, and exquisitely manicured indoor landscape by having realistic expectations for what pruning can do and respecting the natural size and structure of the plant.
Should you prune your indoor plants?
In general, houseplants need to be pruned at the start of the growing season, which for many types is late winter or early spring. Woody indoor plants must be pruned continuously throughout the year to remove dead leaves and branches, making them an exception to the seasonal norm.
Pruning blooming plants shortly after blossoming is a good general rule of thumb. You’ll be removing unopened buds that would otherwise develop into blooms if you prune just before they blossom.
When house plants become too large, what should you do?
It sounds terrible to “prune the roots” of a plant. However, once a houseplant reaches the desired size, it becomes a recurring requirement. Many indoor plants have the potential to get pretty big if left unchecked, but while a 30-foot-tall weeping fig is a beautiful sight on a Caribbean island, my living room ceiling cannot support such growth. Root pruning allows for new soil and new root growth without requiring a plant to be moved to a larger pot, and it also slows stem growth.
Whatever potted plant’s rate of growth—or attempt at growth—and any peculiarities it may have regarding root pruning will determine how frequently I prune it. For instance, my angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia spp.) undergoes one severe root and one stem trimming each year. However, my ponytail palm (Beaucarnea recurvata), which steadily fills more and more of its clay container with its bulbous stalk every year, hasn’t needed root pruning in 19 years.
Usually, plants will let us know when to prune their roots. A larger container or root (and stem) pruning is required if a plant is more than two or three times taller than the height of its pot and on the verge of toppling. Of course, there are exceptions, such as clivia, which flourishes despite being crammed for years in the same pot.
Additionally, plants have more subtle ways of letting us know when their roots need fresh soil: after their roots have filled a container, they will begin to dry up very quickly. Even the drainage holes may start to seep with tangled roots.
Slide the root ball out of the pot and examine it for clues as to whether the plant need root pruning. When the potting soil is just moist enough to work with, this is easiest. For smaller plants, I turn the pot on its side and tap the rim of the pot against the edge of my potting bench while keeping my hand flat on the soil at the base of the stem and the stem between my middle and index fingers. To move a large houseplant, such as my six-foot-tall weeping fig, I lay it on its side on the ground, secure the pot with my feet, and then pull on the stem. When thick roots are pressing up against a root ball’s edge or encircling its outer layers, it is time to root prune.
I either prune with a sharp knife or a saw, depending on the size of the root ball and the thickness of the roots. Now is the moment to remove a layer of dirt and roots from the area around and beneath the root ball while gritting your teeth. The amount to cut away will mostly depend on the size of the ball: I might remove anywhere between a half-inch from the top to the bottom of a small ball to two inches from the root ball of a plant growing in a big tub.
I then go over the entire root ball once more, this time removing soil and roots from all over its surface using a pronged hand cultivator or a stick. This encourages new roots to spread out fast into fresh soil. I always have a pair of pruning shears on standby to trim any spindly or broken roots.
The plant is ready to be put back into its pot after having its roots clipped. Dry or barely moist potting soil sifts most easily in between the roots. I start by adding enough dirt to the pot’s base so that the plant’s stem will rest a half-inch to an inch below the rim. After adjusting the plant’s height, I begin gently adding potting soil to the area between the root ball and the pot, packing it in with my fingertips or a blunt stick as I go. After firming the soil one last time once it has reached the desired level, I add additional if required.
When a plant is healing after root trimming, for a few weeks or longer, watering is crucial. I thoroughly wet the entire container right after pruning. I make sure to properly moisten all the soil at each watering when new growth starts. (Succulents are an exception; even after root cutting, let the soil to completely dry out between waterings.)
In order to limit the plant from becoming larger, the stems must be pruned in order to reduce the number of leaves that the smaller root system must sustain. It’s similar to cutting the grass: trim the tops (and the roots, if you’re root pruning a houseplant) when they get a little bit bigger than intended to a little bit less than desired, let the plant grow again, trim it back again, and so on.
That the plants won’t tolerate this treatment is unfounded. Consider bonsai trees that, according to consistent root and shoot pruning, can still be measured in inches even after 100 or more years.
When ought to plants be pruned?
Pruning is one of the key elements in keeping a landscape healthy and attractive. Although pruning plants can be a physically taxing activity, mastering this vital skill requires careful planning and mental preparation. The following advice is intended to assist you in making plans and preparations for tending to and keeping your trees and shrubs so they can give you years of usefulness and beauty. Let’s start with the fundamentals:
Describe pruning. For horticultural and landscape purposes, pruning is the practice of removing particular plant elements (branches, buds, spent flowers, etc.) carefully.
Why Trim Your Plants? Understanding why you are pruning and your goals is more crucial than knowing when or how to do it. Pruning can be done for a variety of purposes, including but not restricted to:
- to keep plants healthy
- Always remove any wood that is dead, dying, ill, or damaged.
- Branch out rubbing or crossing ones.
- Maintain a healthy airflow inside the plant’s framework.
- Take out undesirable shoots.
- bypass snippers
- regulate size
- accentuate a decorative element (flowers, fruit, etc.)
- Keep your desired form.
When to Prune? The repercussions of improper plant pruning might produce very unfavorable outcomes. The type of plant, the desired result, and the degree of pruning required will all influence the best time to prune. Pruning can be done at any time of the year to remove harmed, dead, or diseased components.
Most trees and shrubs should be pruned in late winter or early spring before the start of new growth, especially those that flower on the new growth of the current season. (March-April).
To enhance the blossoming the following year, plants that bloom on wood from the previous season, such as ornamental fruit trees, rhododendrons, and lilacs, should be pruned right away.
The graph below gives a general timeline for when to prune. Please ask one of our sales representatives for more details. We are always willing to assist.
Pruning plants before bud break in the spring is advised for summer flowering shrubs, such as butterfly bushes, crape myrtles, roses, spirea, privet, and some hydrangea, from February to April.
When pruning, where do you make cuts?
Recognize where to cut. Always cut back vegetation to the soil line or to a growing point (branch or bud). NEVER cut off a stem or branch. NEVER “rejuvenate growth” by topping a tree. The plant’s natural shape is destroyed, and it is far more vulnerable to disease, insect pests, and storm damage as a result.
What happens if a plant has all of its leaves removed?
You should remove dead leaves for three main reasons:
- to release nutrients and promote growth
- in order to stop the spread of illness or pests
- to enhance one’s beauty and health
A plant’s nutrients are better employed elsewhere when its leaves are dying since they leak them. By removing them, the nutrients can reach the remaining healthy leaves and blooms, where they are most required. Your plant shouldn’t be expending resources to support non-viable leaves.
Cutting off dead leaves from some plants during their active growing season may also promote new development.
Cutting off affected leaves as soon as you can may help stop the disease or pest infestation from spreading to other parts of the plant. Examine any leaves you have removed. Apply treatment very away if you suspect a disease or pest infestation.
Furthermore, indoor plants with brown and dead foliage just don’t look good. They appear sick and ugly. Removing these troublesome leaves enhances the health and beauty of the plant. In some plants, keeping brown leaves can actually hasten the plant’s degeneration.
How can I get shorter plants?
Indoor plants provide life and color to a place, but some species can quickly overrun their confines. By preventing or delaying the upward growth of the plants, careful pruning aids in maintaining their size. An yearly pruning of a houseplant can help it grow more leaves and/or bloom buds, which enhances its beauty. Although not all types of indoor plants require the same amount of pruning, many indoor plant types can be kept small by employing certain simple techniques.
When indoor herbaceous blooming plants, like begonias, start to send up new growth in the spring, pinch back the developing points. Plants that are herbaceous don’t have woody stems. On each vertical stem, cut each tip back to the first or second bud. Plants begin to branch at the locations where their upward growth is constrained but stops, resulting in fuller, more compact plants.
In order to regulate their size, prune back most overgrown plants in the spring, especially those that don’t generate woody stems. Use sharp pruning shears to make the pruning cut within 1/4 inch of a leaf set or bud, removing up to one-third of the length of each stem.
At any time, remove any leaves that are dead or damaged by pinching off or cutting them off at the base. A plant’s main stems and the crown, where the leaves and roots converge, should not be cut.
Every year in the spring, just as new growth starts, prune the roots of indoor plants that are in pots. Each plant should be taken out of its pot and its outside roots separated from the soil mass. Cut each plant’s loose roots back to within 1 inch of the main root ball. Plants should be repotted into the same or similar-sized pots.