I'm just wondering, if you have long leafless woody vines on mature plants, should you cut them back to where the last leaf is. Will this give more nutrients to the healthy looking vines? Been looking over some of my vines without any leaves, they seem brittle. Some of them are obviously dead, so I cut them. Others just seem like they aren't doing anything. Will this force new healthy growth? Just got done trimming off the extra vines on my cutting, so scary!!
Heather
Long leafless vines
I bet I know the Hoya you are talking about! Those leafless vines are often where you will find blooms. BUT, I really think the plant will fill in better if you go ahead and shape it up. By all means, I woud suggest to remove any vines that are brittle.
I have a H. cinnamomifolia that may have one leaf for every foot of vine!
Mel is so right!!! Some just put out fugly vines with long hairy roots and few leaves....
Okay Mel, I admit one of them is yours, but you did tell me to prune it a bit. I have several others like that too. I have a meliflua like that also. It will still form new pendacules on new vines right? What about yellow leaves? Trim them off also? Thanks you two!
My experience is that if the vines are new...they will fill in with leaves and with luck flowers. If they are old and woody...not much chance...I prune them back and if there are fresh leaves and growth at the end, root it. HTH
Carol, I didn't even think of rerooting them. Okay, so when I do cut the long vines, I cut them right down to where the leaf is, right. Or right above where the last leaf is, better way of explaining what I mean.
Yes...as if you were making a cutting. Leave a little stub above the node.