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Australian Native Plants

Pruning and Protecting a Bower of Beauty

19 years ago

Hello,

Does anyone have any tips/tricks for tip pruning a bower of beauty climber (pandorea jasminoides)? It is growing up a 2.5 metre south facing wall in an unshaded north facing garden that is very hot and sunny (to say the least). It is now almost four months since it was planted and several shoots have reached the top and I was wondering if it is best to prune them now to promote new shoots/growth below?

Also, I understand bowers can be very frost sensitive. Does anyone have any advice on frost protection?

Thanks very much for your help with his (and all the other information I have gleaned from previous topics).

Regards,

Ryan

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Comments (4)

justcorreas
19 years ago
Hi Ryan,

These can be quite a vigorous plant as yours seems to be, so don't be afraid to give it a hair cut, you won't kill it. You need to keep it somewhere near the dimensions you want, otherwise it will get too big.

These plants survive a Canberra winter so should be O.K. with a frost (I hope).
sgcarter
19 years ago
they are very hardy, pruning is OK, I usually do it after flowering. They also have the added bonus of being very easy to propogate from seed when the pods appear.
cheers
scott
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trish_g
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I think that, with a young plant, the thing to do with those long leaders is to bend them down and train them into a position parallel to the ground rather low down, planning for them to become thick branches as the plant ages. Shoots that are tied parallel to the ground tend to want to put out new, sideways shoots from their nodes, rather than keep growing from their tips (which you could pinch out if they reach the end of the trellis). It can be a problem with climbers that they get sparse low down, and seem to want to send all the green stuff to the top. This is fine if you have a pergola and want a green roof, but a bit of a pest if a green screen was what you needed. A framework of low woody branches lets you cut the plant back annually, to put out new green stuff from low down.
I think that autumn pruning - about Easter - might be best, as it gives the plant time to grow back by the next flowering season (and to make shade for the next summer) - but I've made mistakes here, and would like to hear from other members on this.
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Frank_S
19 years ago
I never had a problem with frost affecting these plants in Toowoomba. They do like full sun though - definitely flower better. I think Trish's approach to make them grow horizontally is a good idea to allow annual pruning - because, at a previous Brisbane address, I found after a couple of years that all the greenery was up top with very little low down, so they did not act that well as a screen, which was one of my main reasons for planting them at that spot.

Scott, if you have a cultivated variety and want to keep the colour, I suggest using your prunings to strike cuttings. I am no propagator, but gave it a go, and to my surprise found them extremely easy to strike. The white flowers of the variety I struck are quite impressive against the glossy green foliage.

Cheers,
Frank

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