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Index : Plant Care
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- 32. Prune Overgrown Texas Ranger Shrubs - Top
- Texas rangers are a group of beautiful shrubs that comes to us from the Chihuahuan desert of west Texas and eastern Mexico. Cultivars vary in flower color from lavender to pink to white. They also range in size, depending on the variety, from 3 feet to over 10 feet tall.
When left to grow naturally, Texas rangers have a beautiful shape, with thick, leafy growth, bottom to top. They also bloom the length of their stems whenever warm weather rains occur. The problem with Texas rangers is that most people don't let them grow naturally, or hand prune them. They are usually pruned with hedge shears. This encourages all the growth to occur on the outer edge of the shrub, while causing the inner portions to become bare.
Sheared Texas rangers bloom poorly, get bare and leggy, and become hopelessly overgrown. The solution is to winter prune these over-grown shrubs back drastically and let them grow up the right way. This process is called restoration pruning.
Now that plants are dormant they can take rather severe pruning and recover just fine. Use long-handled loppers or a pruning saw to cut the stems of about 12 to 18 inches above the ground. Don't worry about leaving bare, leafless stubs. There are lots of dormant buds just under the bark on these stems near the ground. When weather warms in the spring, they will begin to grow and develop into new shoots that will soon become the stems and branches of your restored shrub.
Don't use pruning paint on the cuts you make. These products can actually be harmful to the plant. They interfere with the plant's natural healing process. What's worse they can be absorbed into the wood and have a toxic effect on the new growth.
It doesn't take long using this method to have a great looking, revived Texas ranger. To help the plant recover, apply a high nitrogen fertilizer just prior to the onset of new growth. In the Tucson area fertilization should be done in early to mid-March.
Apply one cup of ammonium sulfate (21-0-0), lawn fertilizer, or similar analysis fertilizer to each Texas ranger you prune back. Sprinkle the fertilizer evenly over the soil, from the base of the shrub out to about 4 feet. Immediately after applying the fertilizer water it in slowly, using a soaker hose.
Now, to keep your Texas ranger looking it's best; don't prune! Your shrub will grow several years before requiring any additional pruning. And when you finally do, don't use a hedge shears. Rather, use a hand pruners and remove only the longest stems, cutting them back well into the shrub. This type of selective pruning will maintain the shrub at whatever size you want, while keeping it naturally attractive and flowering at it's peak.
Other types of shrubs that respond well to restoration pruning include; oleander, cassia, jojoba, greaswood, hopbush, buddleia, and ruellia. Although restoration pruning is not a recommended for all shrubs, it is a method that works to restore shrubs that have been sheared and trained into balls for many years.
For shrubs that are simply overgrown, but not sheared, they can be hand pruned into shape with less drastic measures. Use the selective hand-pruning method detailed above for maintaining shrubs. You don't need to prune off too many stems and branches all at once. Just the longest ones. The following year you can prune using the same method. Just be sure to make your cuts back into the center of the shrub. Using this method, the shrub will maintain and attractive natural form.
The topic for this week's garden demonstration will be "Patio and Container Gardening". It will be presented on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. at the Pima County Extension Center, at 1:00 p.m. at the Wilmot Library, and on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. at Marana Planning Services on the Northeast corner of Orange Grove and Thornydale. Answers to gardening questions may be obtained by phoning 626-5161 in Tucson or 648-0808 in Green Valley.
- Updated: April 19, 2001
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