I know you’re devoted to your houseplants. You nurture them, sing to them, name them, all to make them grow more stems, more leaves. What you’ll really love is getting your houseplants to grow bushier, sprouting new shoots. How do you get them to do this? You have to do something painful, something that seems so counter-productive and opposite to what you think is best for your plants, and PINCH THEM. Pinch them back. At first you won’t want to. It’ll seem unthinkable. You’ll almost hear their screams as you pinch those stems off. Then, if you listen even closer, you’ll hear the roots thanking you, and to show you their gratitude, they’ll send new branches up through the soil. This is a great time of year to pinch back your leggy-looking houseplants and to start fertilizing again, now that the official First Day of Spring is only 2 weeks away. Don’t believe me? Here’s the evidence (click to see a larger version of the photograph). I pinched back my patchouli, grape ivy, umbrella plant and swedish ivy recently and they’re all rewarding me for it. Someone recently came upon this site by searching for grape ivy pictures, so hopefully that person will return to see one below. Oh, and if you want more babies to love, try rooting the cuttings in water.
Patchouli growth.
Umbrella plant, new leaves.
Grape ivy, coming back to life.
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Good tip.
It’s a little sad to see plants that get mangy in the winter because of low light. If you give them a pinch or two they should bounce back when the longer day light returns.
I recently inherited an umbrella plant and it is SO leggy. There are four long stems sticking out of the pot and some leaves at the very top. Everything I read says I should cut it back, but if I cut it back it won’t have any green on it at all! What should I do. Should I really cut it back?
Thanks!
~Diana
I’d give it a go. My umbrella plant has a new little leaf coming at the top of a bare stem right now. You’d be surprised how well it might come back!
The other bonus is that you can root the cuttings and have new plants in case the one you cut back doesn’t do well.
Great tip I’ll have to try it.