The Art of Pruning: Dracaena

One of my favorite things to do is prune plants. It’s so relaxing and rewarding when you see your complete work.
Some of the pruning Techniques I will be showing you range from the highly technical to the simple.
But they are all, across the board: very satisfying to do.

If this is your first time pruning, stay encouraged, if this doesn’t work the first time; sometimes my greatest pruning techniques have come from a few happy little accidents.

Keep in mind- in places like southern California Dracaena leaves tend to get a little yellow to brown at the tip,
This is called “Tipping” . It usually happens when it’s been watered with water with higher levels of salt in it.
What you’re seeing is the plant’s attempt at pushing that salt to its most distant region of its body to let it die off and be made inert, the plant isn’t in danger but it does make for a rather ugly appearance. Corporate office buildings would actually pay money to have this pruned out on a weekly basis!

TOOLS YOU’LL NEED:
1) Scissors
The first thing you’ll need is your tools:
Get yourself a pair of scissors with the longest blades possible.
I find that scissors with longer blades are a lot easier to navigate your detailed cuts with.

2) Trash can or bag
I personally love to use a bag I can just attach to myself and carry around my space to empty out later in my waste-bin.

STEPS TO PRUNE:
1) You first have to visualize what you want your leaf to look like after you’re done pruning it. (No free styling it)
For Dracaena, you want to hold your scissors upside down with your dominant blade facing down and your lower blade facing up, this actually helps align the hinge of your scissors to your wrist and allows for a more controlled cut.

2) Take your scissors and cut the leaf at the point where it’s brown or yellowing.

3) Now with your scissors opened:
Cut the leaf like a “V”

Start from the center tip on the leaf, moving back and out towards its margins. As you’re cutting, straighten out your wrist and scissors so that when you’re reaching the top of your V, the cut is flush and perfectly blended with the leaf!

This is a million dollar technique- you’ll even fool yourself into not recognizing what leaf you pruned.
It’s truly a technique that I’m proud of!
Keep practicing and send us pictures of your skilled pruning cuts, we'd love to see them!