Before you go clipping away at your Italian leather flower, there are a few things you should know about how to do it properly. Pruning without a plan by cutting back key branches can set back the Italian leather flower for a few years, and even stunt its growth permanently. You may not see an abundance of flowers for several growing seasons. However, with proper pruning, your Italian leather flower will continue to bloom well year after year. Tools A few basic tools are all you need to get started. Being a rather woody plant, Italian leather flower stems are particularly thick and tough. To cut through these quickly and effectively, you’ll need a brawny set of plant shears meant for trimming branches and brush. Bypass shears and hand pruners are great for this task, but if there are some branches higher up that you can’t reach safely using a ladder, then loppers can come in handy. For your own protection, a basic pair of gardening gloves and any sort of eye protection for trimming above your head are perfect. It’s easy to catch a leaf or a splinter on its way down, so keeping these things in mind, you can make your best judgment on which protective tools you feel are necessary. Try to consider your surroundings, as well.
How to Prune To prune Italian leather flower, first remove any dead wood or wilting stems that look unhealthy. Getting rid of these parts of the plant helps to keep things clean and tidy, and also relieves the plant of having to hang onto and pump energy and nutrients into branches that won’t survive much longer. Once you’ve removed the decrepit branches, you can begin trimming away the smaller offshoots that aren’t woody or established. Prune back these smaller branches to the base of the intersection where the smaller branch meets the larger one using a straight cut through the smaller branch, but be careful not to cut into the larger branch, if it’s already growing bark. The amount of branches to cut back depends on how much you’d like to get rid of, but the more aggressive pruning, the more growth will appear the next year. Avoid cutting back any branches that are well-established and have bark on them, with little to no green stem showing through. These are your key branches, and they support the Italian leather flower, going into dormancy during the cold months and sprouting new branches that will bear flowers when the weather warms up for the growing season. Pruning after the blooming season by about 50% is a great way to help the plant go back into dormancy, so that it can recuperate and prepare for its big debut the following year. However, in some cases it also helps to prune back about 30% of Italian leather flower’s branches before the blooming season but after new growth appears. Pruning now can help promote luscious new growth, a multitude of flowers, and long-lasting blooms.