This week's TWC segment is about how to prune a Salvia greggii. This is one of the most common questions I get because these plants get really ugly after a couple of years! The flowers are so great but when they aren't flowering much they just look like a bunch of woody sticks. I developed this pruning method other the years to make sure they grow back green and lush. In the past I tried cutting Salvia greggiis back to the ground but they often did not grow back well. Start by taking off the dead branches, then remove all the of branches that are growing along the ground. Then remove branches that are bigger around than a pencil. Then remove all of the little sticks at the top of the plant where the flowers were.
I also use a similar method on Rosemary plants. With rosemary I remove dead branches, then I remove all of the branches lying on the ground. I leave most of the larger branches. Finally I "tip prune" the branches that are too tall as the last step to encourage more branching and growth. Tip pruning means removing the top 2-3 inches of a branch. I usually just do that on the "wild hairs" aka the branches that are too tall.
"Before" photo of a trailing rosemary growing along the street. We pruned it to remove some dead branches and to control its size because it was growing too far out into the street. See how the dead leaves are hanging out over the pavement?
Here is the "after" photo. See how all of the dead stuff was removed? The edge of the plant is now back in the mulch flower bed instead of growing over the pavement. It looks like it wasn't pruned at all- this method makes the plant look more natural than conventional pruning methods.