Texas Gardening: I have a russelia question, 1 by decklife

decklife wrote:
I have Russelia equisetiformis (firecracker plant) in two pots at the bottom of the uprights on my stilt house.One faces south and gets a lot more sun than the other, facing west. Both bloom but the south-facing one blooms more. I don't think we've had freezing temps here but the winds are fierce from the northwest sometimes. Mostly these plants look like grassy strands with flowers, but the base of the plants are thick stems with little leaves on it. I have trimmed off the brown stuff from time to time. I asked one time at a local nursery whether it needed to be cut back, and was told to cut it way back in sections (that is, some now, some later). I have seen very bushy plants, though, that don't look as if they've been cut back. I had a little one that I'd managed to propagate (somehow), and it was completely brown but I ddn't get around to pitching it and lo and behold green appeared again. The picture is from last summer.
For what it's worth....