How to Prune Frozen Cape Honeysuckle
An erect, scrambling evergreen shrub from southern Africa, cape honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis) grows 6 to 22 feet tall and 3 to 10 feet wide. Although killing foliage and stems, a winter frost helps keep this plant in bounds by causing it to rejuvenate. The glossy, dark green leaves tolerate brief episodes of 32 degrees F, but colder temps blacken leaves and kill back branches all the way to the ground. If roots are not frozen, it regrows in spring and produces its vibrant tubular flowers that are scarlet to orange-red, blooming most heavily from late summer to spring. Cape honeysuckle is grown across U.S. Department of Agriculture Hardiness Zones 9 and warmer. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Wait to prune back any frost- or freeze-damaged parts of the cape honeysuckle until the spring when new growth emerges, according to both the University of Arizona and University of Florida Extension Services. Unattractive black and dried leaves can be brushed away to expose naked branches if a more tolerable look is needed.
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Prune off dead branches of the shrub back into green, living tissue. By waiting until spring, you visually find points of regrowth of young leaves on the branches. Make the pruning cuts with hand pruners at a height lower than the highest spot of emerging leaves. This ensures you're cutting into healthy living growth that will heal. Don't worry, cape honeysuckle is a durable and fast-growing plant once summer's warmth returns.
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Cut back seemingly dead branches all the way back, at a height of 4 to 6 inches above the soil. Allow the plant to respond to spring's warmer temperatures for another three to six weeks. If the winter cold wasn't too severe, sprouts will rise from the crown--the area of transition between the trunks and roots. Chances are the plant can rejuvenate from the roots and become a large shrub again that summer.
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Tips & Warnings
An occasional winter frost is a blessing in disguise in the management of cape honeysuckle. Years of growth finds the long, clambering branches almost weedy so the frost helps naturally prune the shrub back. Follow-up pruning of freeze-killed branches in spring lets the shrub grow with renewed vigor and flowering later.
If any cold-damaged branches or leaves on the cape honeysuckle rot (smell of sulfur), prune it away to prevent the possible spread of rot into healthy living stem tissues.
Resist the urge to immediately prune off frost- or freeze-killed branches in winter when there's still the possibility of more subfreezing weather. The dead leaves and branches shelter any living buds or stems from further exposure to the cold.
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