I would put them in bigger pots and prune when they get bigger. I used to live in Vero Beach. I grew mine in the yard. I cut them and let the cuttings dry a few days before I potted them up.

Hi Zackey,

Thanks for the help. When you cut yours back, did you cut them at the ground? Or at some length above the ground? From where did the new growth come? I'm not worried about rooting cuttings so much as where to make my cuts.

Thanks so much!
Carol

Ok, so let's do an experiment.

Both of these plants came from the same mother plant. Both were rooted cuttings, cut on the same day (March 18, 2013) and rooted at the same time. They have been growing in same conditions:
{{gwi:457554}}

One cut at 4" above the soil; the other cut just slightly above the soil line:
{{gwi:861170}}

I'll let these harden off in the shade for about 4-5 days and then pot up to root. They will stay in the shade while rooting. No watering while rooting:
{{gwi:457555}}

In the name of science.
{{gwi:861174}}

Stay tuned...
Carol

This post was edited by love_the_yard on Tue, May 20, 14 at 18:48

I'm sooo glad you are doing this, Carol! I have about 20 cot in pots and have been looking at them for months wondering how to cut them back. I've done some before and been left with a bare stem just like you mentioned...so I'll be waiting for the results of your experiment.
Thanks!
Hester

Thanks from me too, Carol. I was hoping someone would pipe up with an answer.

I have a common COT - corally pink color - that was getting tall. I cut back the tallest stalk and rooted the cutting. Now, one year later, the cutting is nearly as big as the mother. Both have a lovely shape with nicely spaced branches, etc.

THEN...I bought a larger flowered Thai variety at a plant fair. It's grown much taller but, except for the ring of branches at the base that it came with, there've been no more. I pruned the tall stalk and replanted the mother plant in a larger pot. This allowed me to bury the branches in the soil so right now it does look bushy.

Meanwhile I again rooted the cutting. The cutting is growing just like mom - a tall stalk with a ring of branches at the base. Plus neither of the Thais seem willing to drop their now empty flower stalk. These just keep hanging on.

The Thai flower clusters are impressive, but I prefer the form of the regular one.

June

Hello Carol, thank for the experiment.
I have a huge collection of COT, but never have much luck with cuttings. I killed most of my cuttings.
I cut, dry them for few days, but when I plant them, I felt so sorry for them and I always over water. You said, no water while rooting. For how long?
I am sorry, I haven't check back with this forum for awhile.
I also got many big pots with frozen branches over the winter. They don't look so good right now.
Marie
p.s. I didn't do anything but cut down the main stem.

Hester, June and Marie, I'm so glad you posted! It's a lot more fun to think that a few people are interested than I am talking to myself. :) I know you all have beautiful COTs. I'm glad there are some other COT-lovers besides me! :)

Watered the two plants that got the severe cuttings for the first time today. Careful to water around them the perimeter of the pot and pour no water directly into/onto the cut stem.

Potted up the two hardened-off stems on Thursday. That might seem too soon but they seemed ready, all the white sap had dried up, and this time of year is prime growing time - I hate to waste/lose any days early in the year. Rooting a cutting of anything in May vs. rooting it in September is light-years different. Things want to grow in May; not so much in September. In the fall, they are tired and ready to go to sleep. So I was eager to get them off to the races while the year is still young.

Marie, the secret to rooting cuttings is no watering but also, like I said above, doing it early in the year. Start by drying your cuttings in shade - NO sun. You probably already know and do that. When you pot them up, you can pot them at any depth. Just be sure to put them deep enough that they don't fall over. Next, keep them in shade while rooting. We know that these plants love sun but not while rooting. 100% shade or dappled sunlight during the rooting process. Next, do not water for maybe... hmmm... three weeks? I will let you know as I follow these stem cuttings. I haven't rooted any since last year and it's hard for me to remember. I don't use hard and fast time-frames as much as a gut feel. I will let you know when I first water these new ones and we'll count the days. I have been very successful in rooting both Milii and Lomi with this method, in fact, I don't think I have ever lost a cutting.

Marie, also don't toss out your plants with frozen branches. I had many with the same problem and they are all coming back from the roots (except for one Milii and one Lomi). All of the rest are putting up new growth from the roots and this last Lomi is going to get a few more weeks to do it because it feels firm at the base. Maybe yours are doing the same?... because you are right, mine don't look so good either! I know that they will spend the night in my kitchen on hard-freeze nights next winter. The screened-in porch just did not cut it.

All for now on COTS,
Carol

about frozen plants...maybe cut back to undamaged part of plant. Of course it might be damaged all the way to the ground.

to make a nice full plant I like to place 3 cuttings in the same pot :-)

Laura, that's a good idea. I may try that! I assume you are using a larger pot... or rooting COTs with few leaves? I wouldn't have room for more than one cutting in a 4" or 6" pot but an 8" or 10" would work great.

Here's an update on the experiment:

Nothing happening here. It's going to take awhile:
{{gwi:861176}}

The cuttings below are doing fine. Not time to water them yet. Remember that COTs are succulents and they store a lot of water. It takes a long time for them to get dehydrated if they are kept in the shade. These will stay in full shade all of the time while rooting:
{{gwi:861179}}

By the way, those two clay pots are the exact same size. Isn't that an interesting optical illusion. :)

Carol

This post was edited by love_the_yard on Sat, May 31, 14 at 14:25

Carol, I post my COT on Cacti and succulents forum on May 31 2014

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cacti/msg051142316846.html?1

I will NOT water for 3 weeks like you said, next time I do cuttings.

Thank you for suggestion.

Marie

Carol,

I'm curious to know how your experiment is coming along. Did the mother plants grow new branches?

I just received the pictured COT from a lady from church yesterday. As you can see, it's quite leggy!

My husband thinks we should just cut 6-7" from the top and root them. Of course, I don't know the first thing about rooting these, but from reading your posts, I think I may just give it a try...

Thanks,

Kachana

I would cut the plant two thirds of the way back so it can get bushy. I take about a 4 inch cutting. Taking most of the leaves off except for a few at the top. I always watered mine and they got rained on. I only watered them a few times a week.

Carol,
I bumped this up as I am wondering how your plants look. I also cut some of the biggest stems and so far, not much has happened. they haven't rotted where I cut so that's something.
All blooms have stopped as I've finally learned that they will bloom in low light (the Thai ones) and will start looking good late fall.
so they sit in pots out of the way until it's time for display.
When you can, let us know how you did.
thanks,
Hester

wow - those are beautiful! Mine are pathetic in comparision.
You've prompted me into doing more cutting to get branching.
Thanks for the pics -
Hester

Carol are you out there??!!

Hi Hester and Everyone,

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. It's been a busy summer and not much gardening.

Sadly, the two experimental crown-of-thorns did absolutely nothing. Today they look exactly the same as they did in my post of May 31, 2014. No growth whatsoever. I'm pretty sure if I had taken better care, they would have done fine. They get too much shade at the back of the porch and I didn't give them regular waterings.

On the other hand, the two cuttings rooted without any problem. That's probably because I gave them the same care as their mothers and for them (the cuttings), it was proper, LOL! They took off and a month later, I gave them to some friends.

I will have to repeat the experiment in the future when I can do a better job with the follow-up care. I still have the two mother plants and may move them out to a full-sun situation for the next couple months while there is a little bit of growing season left. It would be interesting to see what happens.

Carol in Jacksonville

Thanks, Carol
I'll keep trying!
Sorry you haven't had time to do much gardening - I know how you love it.
I think at this point, we are all looking forward to fall - here in Sarasota, it's been incredibly humid, hot and dry. Very weird for summer with no rain.
Hester

from my experience with crown of thorns, once you cut the mother plant down to its bare root it will not send out any new leaves but will remain dormant for a very long time !!

Verine, I agree. I had the same experience. On the other hand, I had a few COTs with severe frostbite/freeze-burn, all the way back to the roots. As soon as Spring arrived and the weather warmed up, they sprouted from the roots and had good growth throughout the growing season. I guess they just do not like the clippers! :)

Carol in Jacksonville

That's wonderful to hear Carol. I live in the Caribbean where it's rain or sun throughout the year.sometimes it can be really hot !! Crown of thorns love sun so they bloom all through the year. I just love to see their beautiful flowers.

I'm about to cut my yellow thai back to next to nothing and divide it. It's getting too big for its pot and I want the pot for something else. I have already cut it back once this year, because it just looked horrible, but it didn't come back out from the top like I thought it would, but from the bottom. So I'll be pruning it back to about 6 inches tall and letting it come back out from there. I learned about pruning when it almost died one year in a freeze. I had no choice but to cut it back almost to the ground and was shocked that it came back fuller and prettier than ever. I have a small red thai I'm going to do that with next spring when I repot it. This is my yellow before I cut it back, just when I brought it in for the winter last year. It really needs to be divided, but I keep putting it off because it's so prickly.

The pot is definitely too small for the cot. I will put it in a bigger pot so it can spread full and nice.

If I missed it, I am sorry, but what about cutting back the Thai COT plants? I see this yellow one above, that is going to be cut back/down,but with little info on how it is going to be cut.

Do the THAI COT branch out from the cut area, or do I have t cut it to the ground to get it to sprout back out and get a full plant, and control the height??? I have a large mass of a red/pink splash one, and have let it get way to tall, but seem to recall that when I cut back my other Thai COT's, they never branched out, the stem cut would just dry up and die off. And I eventually lost the plant, much smaller in size. So, where can you cut the Thai ones and get it to branch out, and not end up with a dead mass, to dig up!

I had like 5 different Thais, and all but this one has died over the years, from cutting back, and some other reason, probably wet years from rain, I never figured it out. Only this red/pink one is left, and a small yellow one that is in a pot and rooted into the ground under the pot!

My yellow/pink splash, hot pink/red, and a orange/red splash all gone. Now what I have left is in way to much shade,it has stopped blooming almost completely, I cant move it, it is huge, but I can cut it and take cuttings and start again in full sun! Will the cuttings root? I have never had any luck with getting Thai cuttings to root. The 'regular one' will root like a weed, but the Thai dont root for me, I do know how to grow anything, almost:), but this plant is stubborn to get new growth. What part of it will root? Only the very tops, or the harder stems or what? Anyone know? BTW..I am in south Fla,so these grow great here,...but I just cant figure out the cutting back part, without ending up with bare stems all over it that eventually die off.

I use cactus soil mixed with perlite to make it even lighter and faster draining, for cuttings. any ideas on cutting back and rooting. Saw that Martha Stewart video,do you really have to take off the throns below the soil to root them? Maybe the reason all mine didnt root. I never took the thorns off! Heck, they helped keep the cutting stable while I was waiting for roots.

I started with ten or so of the pink COT. All of them were multi stem plants so when one stem got too tall, I would cut it off and just stick it right in the ground next to the parent. I kept doing this until I had made about 3 beds of COT's. Sometimes a cutting or two wouldn't make it, but most did. And the parents all seemed to sprout 2 or 3 branches below the cut so it would help to thicken them up. This was in zone 10 and I only did my cuttings during the spring and summer when it was hot hot hot and raining every day.

One of my beautiful COT

would have been nice to see your cot if it is a thai one, 'verine blucher', but no pic. with your post.

Sorry the picture did not go

Here is one of my beautiful crown of thorn

I had few plants in pot and I left side by side..all the colors planted initially was different colors but when plant grew big side by side and plants started flowering it was all same color...why was that and what can be done next?