Leucadendrons are fascinating and beautiful flowering plants native to South Africa. The flowers are bright and have a certain prehistoric look to them that is sure to please…as long as you know how to care for them. Keep reading to learn more about how and when to prune leucadendrons to get the most out of their flowering potential.
How to Prune a Leucadendron Plant
Leucadendrons bloom in the spring, then continue to put out fresh growth throughout the summer. As the plant is flowering, it’s a good idea to remove spent blooms to keep it neat and to encourage more blooms. Cutting back a leucadendron is earnest is best done after the flowers have all passed.
Leucadendron pruning is not an exact science, and the plants can take a lot of shearing very forgivingly. The main thing to understand is that a woody stem with no leaves is not likely to put out new growth. Because of this, it’s important when pruning leucadendrons to always leave some new, leafy growth with each cut.
Once your leucadendron plant is done flowering for the spring, remove all the spent blooms. Next, cut all the green stems back so there are at least 4 sets of leaves remaining. Don’t cut back so far that you reach the woody, leafless part of the stem, or no new growth will appear. As long as there are still leaves on each stem, you can cut the plant down pretty drastically.
Throughout the growing season, your pruned leucadendron will put out lots of new growth in a more attractive, denser shape, and the following spring it should produce more flowers. The plant should not need to be pruned again for another year, at which point you can perform the same cutting action.