- First, take your etiolated (stretched) succulent and decide where you would like to trim it, keep in mind that wherever you cut the plant will be where it pushes out new growth. If you'd like the plant to be tighter looking in its pot you may want to cut it closer to the base.
- Take a small pair of scissors or pruning snips (we like the Fiskars Micro-Tip Pruning Snips) and snip off the heads of the plant.
- Take off the bottom leaves of the head you've just snipped and let the head dry out or callous for about a week. After it has dried out you can place that head directly back into the original pot, or into a new pot to create a new plant!
- After you've done your pruning, give the plant/arrangement a thorough watering, allowing the entire pot to soak up water (but not too much that its drowning). If the pot has drainage holes, you may need to soak the bottom of the plant in water if it is not absorbing enough, for example if the water is moving immediately out of the pot through the drainage hole.
- After about a month you should start to see new growth/heads where you made the cut. This can take longer or shorter depending on the species of plant, so be patient!
Pruning Your Succulent Plants
Most of the succulent species we use in our arrangements are summer growers, which means they grow in the hot months of summer from May to August and become dormant in the winter (in Ontario, Canada). Extended hours of sunlight triggers these plants to enter their growing season, and they start to "wake up". This is the best time to prune overgrown, etiolated (stretched out) succulents. If you have an indoor succulent plant and/or arrangement you'd like to prune follow these easy steps: