Texas Gardening: Question on trimming Ixora, 1 by ms_merae

ms_merae wrote:
One of my great friends, known as Tomatoholic here, had one of these last year and I fell in love with it. I tried and tried to find one last summer to no avail, however, to my delight I found them this spring. I potted them up this last weekend and noticed that this one has what I think is a "shoot" coming out of the top of the soil. I was hoping that someone could let me know a few things about removing it. First of all, I should do so right? Secondly, is this something that you cut off at soil level or do I need to dig into the soil some and go deeper? Should I pull it instead of prune it? That would seem like a "no-no" to me, but hey, I am a novice. After removing it, is this something that I can get to grow if I put it into a pot? If so, I would love to know how. I think these plants are so pretty, I hope to have them for a long time. According to PF this is a native to Singapore and is more commonly known as Flame of the Jungle or Jungle Geranium. In my zone 8b, I will need to bring it indoors through the winter.


Thanks so much for any help you can provide.

Merae

P.S. I wasn't quite sure on what forum to post this...please forgive me if this one is not appropriate.