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Arizona Gardening

Should I trim the top of my sagebrush

9 years ago

I have a tiny, tiny garden in my tiny, tiny yard. There's one of those ornamental sagebrush plants that was here when I moved in. It's... kind of too big for the space it's in, especially if I want to actually reach the parts of the garden where I have the things I planted, like my onions and the new little English lavender. I don't *object* to the sagebrush, and don't really want the space for anything else (and it shades my little dragonfruit), but I don't care much about it, either.

I've kind of had a policy of letting it grow up as much as it wants to, and just trimming the side when it gets in the way. But it feels like I have to do that practically every day (or, at least, every week), and it gets annoying.

I'm wondering, if I just went at it with the clippers 'til it was, say, 2 feet shorter (it's almost as tall as I am, though only about 2 feet wide), would that significantly slow its sidewards growth? Is there anything else I can do to reduce its vim and vigor a bit, without hurting my other plants? (I don't water it, really, and I don't think I've ever fertilized it, it only gets rainwater and a little residual water from when I water the nearby garden)

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Comments (5)

tamtrible
Original Author
9 years ago
Actually, looking at it closer, it's not almost as tall as I am, it's taller. By a good bit.
LeslieM peoria az
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
If its a texas ranger, or Leucophyllum frutescens, you can cut it back as much as you want, it will be fine. I cut mine back to the ground almost 2 years ago, its 6 feet tall now.I watered ita couple of times after I cut it back, only because we went about 3 months with no rain, but that's it. And it was probably unnecessary.
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tamtrible
Original Author
9 years ago
I'm actually more wondering if cutting the top will slow the side growth. If I accidentally kill it, I'll probably try to see if I can get some seedlings of my wildly happy French lavender to grow there instead.
LeslieM peoria az
9 years ago
I don't know that anything you do will slow the growth. It's pretty much a weed. cut it wherever, and it will keep on growing. I have several, they never get watered, they grow like crazy, and look better when I cut them back hard. I doubt that you can accidentally kill them. Honestly, they're probably one of my favorite plants, they are beautiful in bloom, they bloom on and off all summer, and they thrive on neglect.What's not to love?.
tamtrible thanked LeslieM peoria az
grubby_AZ Tucson Z9
8 years ago
I have a 70 foot hedge of them and cut them all back to foot long sticks one year to imbed a fence in them (as I had a dog with serious wanderlust) and they grew back to about a four foot height that very year. They're all about the roots.

I'd say it's a little past heavy trimming time if you want to do a full-out butchering, but they're a plant you can trim any of a dozen ways, water not at all, and still have it grow gangbusters.

Trim away, either with hedge shears (my favorite), electric sawtooth clippers, loppers, or a hand pruner. it should sucker out again with vigor. Shear slightly every month or so in the active growth season, like on the pom-poms the landscapers leave behind, and it will fill out with a dense surface easily.

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