Nah. You aren't supposed to prune. If you like the way your plant looks, you don't have to. As a matter of personal aesthetics, I probably would have pruned a single-stalk plant though but that's because I don't want them to ever be that tall or I'll have to get a castle to fit them in lol. I have actually pruned one of my plants this summer just because I was irritated by the way it looked.

But worry not! You won't kill it by pruning, as long as the trim is reasonable. Sometimes, pruning can also shock it into blooming but I don't think that is a rule of thumb, more like a bullying tactic. What pruning does, however, is to encourage it to branch out. It's probably too late this season, I think. Show us some pictures.

Do they pay attention to seasons when they're houseplants? I've never seen it go into what I would consider a dormant state. The leaf loss only happened when I had it tucked away in a room where I forgot to water it often enough. It's in a different spot now. (hard to find places the cats can't get to it!)

Here's the whole plant.

And the bottom of the trunk/stalk/thingie.

Hmmm...That part where the trunk thingie (actually called the caudex) is not green---is it squishy? Has it been always like that? That could be some kind of rot if it is soft and squishy. If not, that might still have been rot from which the plant recovered. How often do you water? I think it is also etiolated--more experienced eyes in this forum can tell, for sure.

Cats also happen to my plants (as well as my laundry, books, brushes, curtains, sawdust, etc). As a result, I have learned to grow catnip indoors and outdoors to give them something else to cathandle.

Pagan

Here is a link that might be useful: Clearly this guy has cat issues as well.

So is it too late in the season to cut back two seedlings? I'm in metro NY. I don't expect a frost for at least another month or so, but "growing season" is probably over. These little guys have put on some height and quite a few leaves over the summer (I got them in June, 6 mos old). I want to cut them down an inch or two, instead of letting them keep getting taller through the winter (I will take them indoors, so I don't think they will go completely dormant). I'm hoping to force any growth that's going to happen to the caudex, not the branches.

Is that okay, or should I wait until spring?

Here's a photo I took this morning ... there's a cat in it, which seemed relevant to this thread. :)

Danielle, that's exactly what I did with my spindly seedlings. I hacked the top inch off of the ones that were not developing branches. I reasoned that since they are seedlings, they will go inside anyway, making all sorts of demands for things like light, warm temperature, justice and peace for all mankind, etc. If you can provide them with all that (and in copious amounts too), I bet they'll do fine. I expect growth to slow down, however.

I have adult plants that I want to shape a little but I plan to force those into dormancy so I will just wait for spring before I prune them. Having said that, if you search this forum, some daring growers here prune their mature plants even in the dead of winter and still saw impressive growth. I am guessing their indoors were very warm and very bright--this allowed the plants to turn their noses up on this whole winter business.

The cat should be pruned only once and will need space on your south-facing window.

Pagan

No, no squishiness at all- in fact it's more woody than anything. Never seen any sign of rot on it. I water it when I remember, which is not as often as it could be. It gets pretty dried out in between times. (another reason I've moved it to a new spot- I see it more now) Oh, and the photo makes it look etiolated, but that was from the flash. The color is much better in real life. It gets plenty of light.

I was thinking the color of the caudex could be because I had it planted too deep for a while. But again, there's been no sign of rot.

I'm just tired of how tall this thing is, dangit. And of course I want flowers. (the cultivar is "Super Black" and I'm dying to see them!)

Pony,

So, you planted it too deep for a while and then lifted it? Wow, I wondered exactly that! That is, what will happen to my plant (which looks like it has been lifted several times before) if I replanted it an inch or two lower than it is now. And then lift it after a year or so.

Anyway, I have not had bloom on any of my plants so what you are asking is out of the range of my experience. BUT. I did prune one of them in July and it has 6 buds on it right now. The jury is still out on whether they will open or lose interest and drop. The difference is that all of them are out in direct sun 6 hours a day in Zone 7 where temperatures are seesawing from 12C to 32C these past two weeks.

If that was my plant, I will cut it down to about 10 inches IFF I can place it near a heat source indoors on a humidity tray under a strong grow light all winter. Otherwise, I'll wait for spring.

I hope the more experienced growers here will look in later and have better suggestions.

Good luck!

Pagan

Hmmm. A grow light is definitely an option. We have some squirreled away in the attic, from when hubby had a lot of plants in his no-window office, and I can certainly make a humidity tray easily enough.

So I guess I'll be brave and cut it once I get all my supplies squared away. We're still hot and sunny here, but that will be ending very soon. Thanks for the advice. :)

Whoops- and yes, that's exactly what I did. I had it planted deeper for quite some time, then realized the fat part should be above the soil line, and when I repotted it, that's how it looked.

Hi Pony.

This is the link I mentioned earlier. You can ask him what conditions he had that allowed him to hard prune his plant in the middle of winter.

First, this click here

then this click here

This post was edited by fakechuchi on Fri, Sep 13, 13 at 9:11

It sure turned out well for him! :)

I found our grow lights, and I'm just going to go ahead and prune it down hard. Probably this weekend. I'll move it into the living room as soon as the weather cools down, because it's always toasty warm in there in the winter. Must get the humidity tray put together too.

Hopefully it will decide it wants to branch out and give me flowers eventually. And if not, I guess I'll start over. These are fascinating plants- I wish I had researched what it was I was growing sooner. ;)

I do not want to butt in, but when you say "I'll move it into the living room as soon as the weather cools down". Why would you not have it in the warmest room now? This would help promote growth as well as sunlight.
You wouldn't want it exposed to full afternoon sun if not used to it, but if sunlight is available to it, it would help.
I may have missed something. Hope you do not mind my comments.
Rick

The living room is the warmest room in the wintertime, not now. Right now it's bloody hot in the rec room where it currently resides. And there's not much light in the living room. Hence the plan to use the grow light once it gets moved in there.

Hi there, if you decide to hard prune your DR, here's a tip...decide which is to be the front of the plant (easier as it has no branches, but most plants of any kind have a best side) and make the cut a sloping one rather than horizontal with the 'higher' edge to this front side....it will be far less noticeable later on. Hope this helps. I would definitely cut it down as I don't personally like the long lean look with no branches. It needs to have leaf scars below your cut, (and I can see them in the pic all the way down) so that it can sprout from them given the right conditions. It should also make the base fill out more.
Also, is your soil gritty and free draining? Water should run out almost as soon as it's watered. They hate peat and water retaining mixes.
Good luck. Just my opinion you understand!
Gill UK.

This post was edited by greenclaws on Sat, Sep 14, 13 at 15:59

I agree with the advice given. Good luck!

Cute cat, Danielle.

Kirk

I wound up doing that hard prune a couple of days ago. I did cut it at an angle, and I dabbed some honey on the cut.

Nothing left to do but wait and see... I'll post pics if it starts sprouting. :)

(I dipped the end of the top in rooting hormone and stuck it in water- saw other threads about there being a small chance it will root. Won't be distraught if it doesn't.)

Thanks for the information! I knew there was a reason to prune on an angle, but I wasn't sure of why; now I'm clear on what I need to do.

I've been putting it off snipping those new gorgeous leaves, but it's got to happen soon. It's difficult to see, but the skinnier one on the right has two symmetrical small branches growing out low on the trunk. I may take as much as half of that plant's height off. The other one will only lose about a quarter of its height. Come spring, I'll repot and see if we can't get blooms!

I'll give the cat another winter before her pruning. ;)

Hi Danielle...another reason for a sloping cut is ...and this applies to any plant really but much especially if it's an outdoor one at some point in it's life, is that the rain will run off rather than sitting on the flat horizontal cut and rot it. Good luck!
Gill UK.
PS don't prune the cat, they respond badly!!

This post was edited by greenclaws on Tue, Sep 17, 13 at 9:09