Believe it or not, pruning houseplants is a regular part of houseplant care for any indoor gardener. Pruning your houseplants can help promote faster growth, and healthier plants if done correctly and at the right time. Below, I will teach you how to prune houseplants (and why you should!).
Why to Prune Houseplants
Regularly pruning your houseplants can make them look even more beautiful. Pruning houseplants will keep them from looking leggy, lopsided, or unbalanced. Basically, pruning is a way to make your houseplants picture perfect.
How to Prune Houseplants
Though you won’t have to prune houseplants as regularly as you do outdoor plants, you will have to at some point. When pruning houseplants, you should aim to do so at the beginning of every growing season. This is the Spring for most houseplants. And if your houseplants flower, plan on pruning them right after they finish blooming.
Evaluate Your Plant
Begin by evaluating your plant. Does it need to be pruned in certain areas? Is there lots of dead growth, any diseased leaves, or is the plant growing lopsided? Start by cleaning up all of those scissors with damp scissors or damp pruning sheers if your plant is sturdier.
When pruning a flowering plant, “deadhead” the plant by clipping blooms as close as possible to the base of the stem. A general rule of thumb is to never remove more than 25 percent.
Trim the outer leaves of your houseplants back to no more than one-quarter of their length, others (closer to the base) can be cut fully back. This will help promote unique, original looking growth as the plant grows and fills itself back in.
How To Prune Vines
Vines are a little trickier to prune because they require “training” of the leaves” to grow a certain way on a trellis of sorts. Cut them back in the Summer if their length is getting unmanageable, but leave them be throughout the remainder of the year.
Don’t Prune These Plants
These plants don’t need to be pruned, and doing so can dramatically affect their appearance and growth cycle. Keep your sheers away from Norfolk Pines, palms, and orchids (though, old stems can be removed as soon as they dry out).
