Examine the shape and structure of your houseplant from a distance. Check to see if the plant is becoming spindly, has fuller-looking foliage on one side, or has any damaged or dead foliage. Additionally, search for “latent buds,” which are prospective new growth sites. Usually, buds form where the leaf meets the plant stem.
Remove Dead Matter
Cut or pinch off any dead stems and leaves. Pull away any stems that have root rot and wait until the earth is completely dry before watering the plant again.
Make Your Cuts
Prudently prune to promote fresh growth. Prior to a leaf node, trim. Alternatively, cut as near to the main stem as you can when trimming back longer stems. Nevertheless, don’t take out more than 25% of the plant.
Where are indoor plants cut?
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.
When should indoor plants be pruned?
The start of the growth season is the ideal time to prune indoor plants. The greatest time to care for most houseplants is in the late winter or early spring, when the days are getting longer and the plants are beginning to awaken. If you decide to prune flowering plants, you might want to do it immediately following a flowering cycle.
How should you cut a houseplant for a cutting?
Amass your resources.
It’s crucial to gather the proper supplies before attempting to propagate houseplants from stem cuttings. You will require the following items:
- mother plant in good health. Make sure the plant you intend to propagate is sound enough to have some of its foliage removed, disease- and pest-free, and pest-free.
- a spotless set of pruning shears.
- a rooting hormone container (available at your local garden center).
- a bag of sterile potting soil made of peat or coir.
- a brand-new Smart Pot, one gallon.
- A clear plastic bag that can fit the complete Smart Pot inside. Used dry cleaning bags are perfect for this project.
- Cut it out.
On the mother plant, find a couple strong stem tips. Cut off three or four of these stem tips immediately below a leaf node with your pruning shears (the place on the stem where the leaf emerges). Each cutting needs to be one to three inches long and have at least one leaf. Once you have all of your houseplant cuttings, remove all leaves from them except the top two.
Put rooting hormone on.
The three different forms of rooting hormone are powder, liquid, and gel. Whichever type you possess, place the lowest inch of the freshly cut end of the cutting into the hormone. Tap off any extra.
The cutting should be placed in sterilized potting soil.
Fill the Smart Pot with potting mix, giving the bottom a quick tap on a tabletop to remove any remaining air bubbles. Cut end down, insert the hormone-coated cutting into the potting soil until only the top two inches of the cutting are exposed. Continue by using the other cuttings. In a single gallon-sized Smart Pot, you can fit three or four cuttings; just make sure they don’t touch. If two cuttings come into contact with one another, disease can easily transfer from one to the other.
Wait, cover with water.
When watering in the cuttings after they have been planted, use a soft shower rather than a stern stream. A few inches above the plant tops, insert the entire Smart Pot into the transparent plastic bag and fasten it with a twist tie. If necessary, support the plastic bag with a stake or wire hoop; it shouldn’t touch the clippings. Put the pot of cuttings under grow lights or on a sunny windowsill. Avoid exposing the cuttings to strong, direct sunlight since you run the risk of scorching them. Until the cuttings develop their own roots, the plastic bag maintains a high level of humidity; however, the container may periodically need to be watered. Every few days, check the pot and add water as needed. Remove the bag and keep watering the cuttings frequently for another four to six weeks. A few weeks later, the rooted cuttings can be removed from the pot and transferred to different containers.
As you can see, growing new plants is a really satisfying activity. It’s entertaining to observe which houseplant cuttings flourish. And perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of all is sharing new plants with others!
How can a plant be pruned without destroying it?
An awareness of the plant’s growth pattern is necessary for effective pruning. Plants develop from the tip down, which means that a branch or stem’s dominant bud is where new growth first appears.
Snip off the dominant buds on a few stems, spacing the cuts to provide a variety of growth, to prune a plant to promote bushy new growth. Trim some branches down to their root, some back by half, and still others completely. In this manner, the random growth pattern will fill up the plant when it produces new leaves.
Simply removing any dead blooms is what is meant by the pruning technique known as “deadheading.” When a plant blooms, it diverts energy away from new development and onto its blossoms. A flower still uses energy from the plant even when it is fading. Deadheading is frequently required to extend the flowering season and promote healthy development.
Maintaining cleanliness is crucial during pruning. A plant’s tissue might become infected through any wound. Therefore, maintain your pruning tools clean and sterile by wiping them off after each use with a mild bleach and water solution.
A cup of water can be used to root most houseplant cuttings before they are planted to create new houseplants. Even better, succulent clippings can be multiplied by putting them straight in a pot of damp soil. You should have fresh plants developing after a few weeks.
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 sections 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.
Do plants regenerate after being cut?
Greatness may be best measured by overcoming adversity rather than by inherent talent, accomplishment, or a popularity contest.
Thus, the power of plants is shown, since many can be cut to the ground or fully die back before reviving, frequently stronger than before.
In actuality, the strategy of bulbous plants is to go through a protracted dormant phase before reviving the following year when their foliage dies after they have blossomed. These plants, the majority of which are native to desert regions, almost seem to enjoy the hardship of a long, dry, hot, leafless summer, if only to demonstrate their indifference to circumstances that would endanger the existence of practically every other leafy species.
Although their foliage dies, bulbous plants continue to exist because their bulbs will now swell and “give birth to young bulbs underground.” This is why it’s so crucial to keep any flopped or shriveled leaves on them. These leaves will continue to produce carbohydrates as long as they are green, feeding the developing bulbs.
Even woody plants have the ability to regenerate from the ground up. A burned-out redwood tree lives by dispersing a ring of seedlings around its burnt stump.
Poplars are indefatigable, too. If you have a Lombardy poplar, which is prized for its propensity of growing in columns, you will likely always produce clonal offspring. Adventitious shoots are leafy sprouts that emerge from roots that are so far away from the tree that they initially give you the impression that they must have been seeds. You don’t fully appreciate the size of your poplar’s root system until you start plucking at the little shoots and feel resistance.
I once owned a stunning crimson hibiscus plant that was over 15 years old and about two stories tall. I requested my gardener to remove a few brunches to allow the nearby plants to expand and breathe. The hibiscus perished after he pruned it to a height of 6 feet. If the cutting or the age of the plant is to blame, please let me know. West Hills’ Sophia Barkhoudarian.
The majority of woody plants and trees cannot be severe pruned because they cannot regrow after being chopped to the ground (see above).
Any plant should not be pruned back by more than two-thirds. Although some older hibiscus types can live for more than half a century, several younger forms consider 15 years old to be ancient.
It’s also possible that as other plants and trees grew up around your tall hibiscus, it became more shaded and that’s why it was reaching for the sun. When its height was reduced, it began to grow in a more shadier environment, which may have contributed to its demise.
Having said that, I was somewhat aback by the outcome of some extreme pruning carried out by a neighbor last fall. He decided he had enough of a yucca tree that had gotten to be over 8 feet tall six months prior. He admitted that he was simply too lazy to dig the stump out, so he cut down the tree, leaving around one foot of it behind. Even though I was certain the tree was dead, a week ago I noticed some leaves starting to sprout from the trunk. At the same moment, nearby leaves began to emerge from the ground.
Since then, I’ve learned that cutting the tops off of some yucca species causes fresh growth along the trunk and the development of pups—whole new plants that sprout from the roots of the decapitated tree.
In spite of years of growth, my neighbor’s yucca had never sprung a pup; yet, after extreme pruning, it was suddenly producing a sizable litter for him.