Expert: C.L. Fornari - 3/14/2007

Question
We live in San Diego, Ca. and have a hedge of bougainvillea that is/was about 8-9 ft tall. It was heavily frost burned this winter.  
How that the chance of another frost is extremely slim, we want to cut it back and see if it will grow back and fill in.
How would you recommend we do this and hopefully save our beautiful plants?

Answer
Mike,
At the very least you want to cut off all the frosted stems and foliage.  Once that is done you can either stop there, or do a bit more pruning to rejuvinate the plants.  To prune more, identify the oldest stems and cut a third of them down to about 4 feet tall.  After that, cut out and remove any other dead-wood or anything that is growing in an odd direction.  In other words, prune for appearance rather than chopping the entire thing to a certain height.

Once the new growth starts you can pinch the ends of the new growth to encourage bushiness if you want - pinch about a third of the new stems when growth is over 6 to 8 inches long.  

I hope that this helps - trying to explain pruning in an email is sort of like trying to teach someone skiing in a letter.  You can find a good deal of general pruning information at the following website: http://www.plantamnesty.org/


all the best,
C.L.