How to Train Your Plants
Do You Have Dragons?
The Tropical Grower is talking taming plants this week with How to Train Your Plants. We definitely have some dragons, also known as heavily growing planties, here in our Tropical Zone. Whether you are Growing Tropical or find your green in more northern regions, some form of Training is necessary to keep plants where you want them.
Training can also be done for shade, screening, to define space, to create something useful or just to make something cool and pretty. Plants are pretty versatile. You can even train them to produce more flowers or fruit. The trick is finding the right way to train which plant. Once you’ve got that, your brain is the limit. Let it wander free.
Training
Training your plants includes an exceptionally wide scope from topiary, that’s the yard animals and such made out of bushes, to keeping them out of the walkway. You don’t have to be an expert. Some plants simply need to be cut into the shape you want, while others need to be physically manipulated to grow in a specific direction. The plants themselves determine how. You just need the top hat and whip. Well, cutters and probably some wire.
Making plants do weird stuff makes gardening fun, at least for me. It started out in the house, when I was trucking houseplants from place to place. Ivy grown up double balls, and I was hooked. Dalila dog actually tried to run through it, got her head stuck in the sphere support and yanked the plant from the pot. I came home to her sporting her new ivy ball collar. LOL! She was a wild puppy.
Vines
Vines are the easiest to train. Most varieties grow like mad, and it’s just a matter of hooking them to the supports. I usually just use the wrap method and let them attach themselves when I can. The problem with training vines is they need support, and the supports are probably not going to fare well in the exchange. So, that Ivy looks really spiffy growing up the bricks on the house, too bad its roots are digging out the mortar between them. See what I mean?
Currently, we have Jasmine climbing an arch around the corner of the pool cage. The arch is a recycled pool umbrella hardware and stand. If I haven’t mentioned it before, we go through pool umbrellas, and the hardware and support parts are super sturdy. They have to be to hold up the big heavy umbrellas. Using something you don’t care whether or not gets messed up is best. We wouldn’t want it messing up the pool screen.
Wrap & Wind Method
Vines are usually sticky in some way. Either their stems or leaves, and/or in some cases, they have little sticky curly-cues to wrap around anything they can reach. We even have ones whose curly-cues will form what look like little suction cup hands, like tree frogs, to stick to walls. Even if they are not sticky, their long strands are perfect for wrapping through and around things.
We grow lots of different vine fruit and vegetables: Pumpkin, Watermelon, Sweet Potato, Cantaloupe, Beans, Cucumbers, Dragon Fruit, Squash, and technically Tomatoes to name some. I did say vines like our Tropical Zone. We’re just making the most of a good situation.
We also have to deal with the wild vines. There are so many in the natural buffer areas I started using them. I tie-up the Bougainvillea to grow upright, weave it into baskets, there are wreaths all along the back fence. You can literally wrap and wind vines into any shape, including tying live green ones. Yup, bows. LOL! Seriously.
Woody or Green Shoots
Our Star Jasmine grows in long woody tendrils. Even though it doesn’t feel sticky in any way, once the shoot is long enough to reach out, we simply stick it through the support. If it doesn’t stay, it’s just wound tighter. Since these woody stems will grow on each other, wrapped up in a thick candy cane swirl, tightening them until they stay isn’t an issue. Just don’t bend them in half, they break.
If any shoot is green, don’t let them attach to each other or wrap up other shoots with a curly-cue climber. They can cut off their own water and food supply trying to hold on. And, they don’t care what they attach to, themselves, other plants, the house.
Pruning
Vines grow better when pruned. Cut off any dead shoots or leaves. If you want a few long shoots instead of one long one, trim for the 1st time when the main vine reaches about 12 to 18 inches. It will produce 2 or more shoots from each cut. Let it grow a few more leaf sections on each shoot, and cut again. In this way, you can bush a vine out. Or you can just let it grow 1 or more main shoots. Up to you.
Cut at a section or leaf. Make sure there are leaves left on the plant. You never want to trim it back to bare branches unless you are Training, giving a hard cut or preparing for winter. Pruning shapes the plant. It’s the fine tuning part.
Supports
Vines want to grow up, and they usually reach 10 feet or greater. Unless you have lots of space, you’re going to want to Train them to go around and up.
The vines in Our Garden generally grow up fencing. We like both the vertical and horizontal supports. We also like to try to run the vines horizontally before they go up. You can stick a 6 foot bamboo pole in the ground, and a bean plant will grow straight up it, no problem. Until it reaches the top and has no place to go. Cut it, and the side shoots will have no place to grow. Training it to grow in a spiral around a cylinder of fencing accommodates many more feet of growth. A section of fencing will accommodate side shoots when the top needs to be whacked.
Heavy vines, like Dragon Fruit Cactus are going to need big strong heavy supports, and whatever it’s attached to will take a beating. Lima Beans on the other hand only need a short light support like bamboo or a short section of fencing. The support just needs to be sturdy enough to keep it from pulling the roots out of the ground or falling over.
Fasteners
Never use any type of fastener that will damage your plant. While wire can work great for Schefflera’s thick hearty stems, it will cut or damage most soft stem plants including vegetables like cucumber or Dragon Fruit Cactus. If wrapping and winding fall short, try using a plastic fastener that wraps fully around both stem and support, a plastic hook, covered padded wire or other fastener that offers less stress on soft stems. We use both the Support Clips and the J Hook Clips when wire is too harsh.
Try to attach fasteners directly to the sturdiest part of the vines away from leaves and any fruit, buds, veggies, pods, etc. While it seems like a good idea to attach a fastener right next to heavy fruit like Cantaloupe to keep it on the vine, a much better idea is to wrap a sling around your fruit. You don’t want to cut off its food and water supply.
Planting Holes
When Training Vines to climb supports, you want the planting holes to be as close to the support as possible. You also want the support to be stable enough not to pull the plant out of the ground once it attaches to the support. So, stable support directly adjacent to your planting hole. You don’t want your roots flapping in the breeze.
You also want to leave a little slack to start. While the immediate go-to is always attach a plant to a support in the strongest most secure manner as possible, not so with vines. Because vines are used to floating through the air and defying gravity, leaving a little slack in the vine before it starts its climb up the support will help keep it in the ground while young. It will sure itself up as the stem ages.
Hard Stem Bush Plants
I’m not going to lie, we don’t really have many of these in the yard. You want to say Bougainvillea falls in this category, but as hard and pokey as its branches are, they will not support themselves on their own. They break under their own weight. We’re talking about plants with hard stems that will support their own weight. Think tree branches, only smaller. When cut, there are more leaves, not just bare branches. Holly falls here, Ligustrum, box bushes, Hibiscus if grown correctly, Ixora, even rosemary qualifies.
These are cutters. Or, more accurately, you’ll need cutters, snippers, hedge trimmers, or other sharp objects to Train them. If you ever wanted to make animals out of hedges or simple puffs, these are the best candidates. They will also form solid screen hedges from your neighbors if you get a tall variety.
It Can Just Be For Fun
We’ve been Training our Ligustrum tree for years to lean over the shell circle. It has Orchids hanging from it. Just lovely. No purpose, just fun.
We lost the half the trunk with main branches in Hurricane Irma. The side going the other direction which balanced the tree and allowed for a lean. Dang. The good news was with some Trimming, we only allowed 2 main branches to form from the bottom. As they came in, they balanced the tree trunk. Hurricane Ian slapped it down again, but we seem to have gotten it back stabilized. I still have a support up, just in case. It is rainy season.
Trim
If you hate cutting or trimming plants, these probably should not be your 1st choice. Training is going to be sharp and unforgiving. If trimming isn’t a problem, these offer the best shaping options.
Let them grow a little bushy, this is very important, before you cut to your desired shape. You want the plant to take hold, drop roots, be happy, before you make any cuts. Remember, it probably will not happen all at once, it will need to be Trained over time.
Make You Cuts Count
Once it has started to bush out, cut any lateral branches – the ones growing sideways, if you want the plant to grow up. Taking out all the lower branches next to the main trunk will get it to start growing like a tree. Like vines, make sure your cuts are at the sections or leaves.
Cut the top and sides, if you want the branches to divide and bush-out more. While they are young, hold-off on making them perfect. Cut less. Let them grow more. Once big and established, you’re going to be cutting more.
If you are going all out, animal, shape, dinosaur, allow the bush to grow at least ⅓ bigger than you want it before trimming it to size. This will give you plenty of wiggle room, and once the shape is established, it’s easier to get back to each time. It also helps to use multiple bushes if your shape is wide instead of just tall.
Self-Sufficient
Besides most of these being hearty growers, they offer their own support. They don’t need additional supports to hold them in place. You cut to fit instead of having to use fasteners to keep them there. While there are instances where you might be able to bend young branches the way you want them to grow and screw them into place, these are more likely to break. It’s better to trim the branch until the shoots grow in the right direction. And yes, this takes longer.
However, whatever you grow is going to be the base shape. Year after year, you simply trim back to the base shape. It will grow bigger, thicker, and one day you may have to decide if it still fits in its space. Then, it’s hard-cut or move. But for years, cut to base.
Soft-Stems That Harden With Age
These are my favorites to Train. Schefflera, Bamboo, Bougainvillea, anything that starts out with long green stems you can shape before they harden into place. You can do almost anything with these.
Bamboo
I grew bamboo in my office for years. Fun Fact, most of the bamboo commercially grown with loops, spirals and/or curves is grown by moving the pot. You secure the medium, and flip the pot until the top has to grow up in the direction you want. Repeat. For a loop, you slowly flip it 360 degrees. Interesting, huh? For weaves, the green bamboo bends. You ease it into the direction and secure with covered wire or plastic fastener.
My fun office bamboo got crazy on the lanai. I had to completely restart it. Humph. Boo. It’s okay, I want to start some in the yard. I haven’t because you don’t plant bamboo in the ground. It will take over. No joke, not exaggerating. It has to be planted in closed cement or a pot. I have a plan. (To be continued . . .)
Bougainvillea
Yup, this needs support, and you need gloves. It’s pokey. Once it’s established, you will have to treat it just like a Hard Stem. Cut. But young, this is easily bendable, even around the trunk.
My Son and Hannah have one in a pot, currently living in Our Garden. It has a piece of rebar next to the main stem. The young stems are wound around the main one and rebar, candy cane style, with a few hanging off. In this way, you can train it into a tree. While one branch may not be able to support its weight, many growing together will. We’re working on it.
We have 3 old growth plants in Our Garden. The 2 on the fence lines would support their own weights at this point. Big trunks. The one screening the neighbors does. I whacked it out of the fence last year. The one by the Tunnel has so completely merged with the fence, they are now one. The last one by the house has a support. It still falls down. All but the Tunnel are being retrained after Hurricane Ian.
Current Training Projects
Obviously, the Bougainvillea screening the neighbors took a hit. I can still see their balcony from our living room. It had been recently trimmed when the storm hit, and it collapsed on itself. It normally grows straight up and falls towards the house over the drainage ditch. The branches are trimmed before they hit the ground. This cuts down on trimming and creates a large screening mass. You can walk underneath.
First, it was trimmed back to its area. The storm blew it around. The branches that fell below walkable, through the ditch, were pushed up and stabilized. We are still working on this. It’s a slow process. Everything else is being slowly pushed up with the branches supporting each other. We need height. It’s a screen.
The bush by the house is a mess as usual. It fell in Hurricane Ian, was cut completely back, grew full, and ½ of it fell again. I had to remove what went down. It’s now growing in a tiny pot. The rest I’ve decided to use the same method as the kid’s plant and try to turn it into a tree. All new green branches are getting wound up the trunk in the hopes of making it more sturdy. Not holding my breath.
Schefflera
As I mentioned in How to Create A Tunnel Through Your Vegetation, we grow Schefflera as a box hedge. I believe it will also make a fun topiary. The one out front is screaming to be an octopus. One day. There’s the Tunnel, Arches and screening. There’s also the Shaded Walk for the orchid fence doubling as screening for the pool area. Good stuff. Easy to work with, and it screams to be Trained. At least, that’s the way I hear it. The best part, it’s NOT pokey, and the leaves make a great natural mulch.
Schefflera grows in long, mostly straight, sectioned branches, and reminds me of a leafy bamboo. However, where bamboo is a bunch of individual plants growing out of the ground, the Schefflera, usually, starts out as an individual trunk. When cut, it makes more individual branches. Usually, it branches low and often until it’s a bunch of individual long branches coming out of a main trunk.
A single multi-petal leaf grows out of each side of the branch at every section. I often remove leaves to open up the wacky growing branches to spectators. Otherwise, the number of leaves and branches make it pretty bushy.
Current Training Projects
Arch
The Arch to the pool door was super fun. Oh yeah, you can absolutely reach these together, defying space and gravity, overhead. Stupid Ian, whacked all my master skills, LOL, into a bendy top of heart dud.
It actually pulled the Shaded Walk away from the Arch, and now, they don’t quite reach anymore. I’m trying to practice patience while they grow back together. How am I doing? Well, it’s hard when I have to look at it.
Shaded Walk
The old growth by the pool area was planted for screening. It does a nice job. It also sends out big ole long branches. They soar into the air, trying to take over the Spanish Bayonet Yucca and the pool cage.
Since the Arch worked so well, we decided to grow the branches over the fence line in a dappled sun lit walk. The Hong Kong Orchid Tree that had been providing shade there has a parasite, and we’ve been losing whole big branches. It’s unclear whether I will be able to save it. So, the Shaded Walk.
The way to brace the leaning branches is by using other branches horizontally for a brace. You want it at or close to the height of the ‘roof’. I’ve just been using wire to hold it in place, but I just watched a video where they used screws for thin branches which I believe will provide a sturdier hold in the summer thunderstorms. We’ll see, I just did a test. It might kill the branch.
I’ve also been using metal pole braces on the fence to ‘hold’ them up. Just like the standing metal poles, they’re only there until they establish in place. The effect is super cool and useful. I’m sure it will be much prettier when I remove all the supports. They are ugly.
Box Bushes
The way to grow any box bush, or square hedge, is to plant a row of hedge plants, in this case Schefflera, allow them to grow into each other, and trim straight across the top and sides, into a box. The longer you wait for the 1st trim, the better.
Your first couple of trims will not look perfect. It is going to take a bit for them to fill in, but after it does, it gets easier and easier to find its shape. The more you cut, the more the leaves fill in underneath. It provides such good screening, I did a row in front of the waste cans. While torn up a bit in Ian, it’s coming back nicely.
How to Train Your Plants
While we tend to go for a more wild or natural look, don’t let it fool you. Our Garden is manicured and absolutely Trained to, not just stay off its neighbors, but perform feats of beauty and wonder. The secret is finding a plant’s nature and working with it. So, Trim, Physically Move, Fasten and make some Magic. Because you do it over time, it’s just a matter of dreaming and starting to go in a direction. One day, you look up, and there it is in real life.
