Expert: Darlene K. Kittle - 11/1/2009

Question
Mine is several years old and has been in the same pot (smallish).  It is healthy, loves the spot where I have it, but is WAY too tall.  I want to divide it in the Spring, but is it safe to cut the canes back to a shorter length, and if so, when should I do it?  Should I wait till Spring?

Answer
Linda,

Earlier today someone sent me a picture of the largest Chinese Evergreen I have ever seen. It was absolutely beautiful.  After seeing that I cannot reccommend that you divide it or prune it. In the next couple of days go to Allexperts.com and go to View past quetions under my name and look at the question about scale on the aglaonema. There you will see the picture of the plant I am talking about. If you move your plant to a pot with a diameter 2 inches larger than the one it is in in the spring and allow it to grow it will eventually branch out and get this large. It will take time and you will need to repot it each year or two until it is large like that one but it will eventually be that beautiful.

I have tried to cut the canes back to a shorter length and have never been successful at getting them to leaf out again. It is a plant that wants to grow large as you will see in that picture and not stay small. If you want a plant that will stay a smaller size you need to stick with a smaller Peace Lily instead of a Chinese Evergreen. Good luck.

Darlene