Hi Wendy,

A warm spring day would be great. I know this plant but I have never grown it. Does it have underground tubers (because if it does, I'd suggest subterranean rocks for the roots to grow around)? It looks great and the pruning of that one branch is a good idea. Treat it like a tropical when it's warm and watch out for the tremendous growth.

Jeff, I don't think this plant has underground tubers, but having roots grow around rock would look really cool. I do have a Cyphostemma 'Fat Bastard' which, I believe, does have tuberous roots. It might work well with that plant :-). I also have a Operculicarya decaryi which might be a good candidate.

It's, as you know, a tropical, so treat it with that in mind and your plant should be healthy. Those summer thunderstorms will really be liked by it. Yes, those two (RIP in my collection) make enormous underground roots, and rocks in the soil is a fine way to get enormous tubers.

Goody, more future projects :-) (this isn't sarcasm, I do mean goody!)

SLD,

That's some really nice growth in just a couple of years! As far as I know, the plant can be treated very similarly to other woody plants RE: above/below ground pruning and timing. As I'm sure you've read most of Al's work, I'll try not to repeat anything unnecessary. For pruning, it always depends on what you want to go for. So if you want more branching (ramification), then cutting any of the branches will result in that. I could try to sum up the specifics of dormant nodes and the hormone signals that are activated when the growing tips are removed but I only understand it roughly enough to feel confident when pruning my own plants. Plus, Al has already written about it in great detail on the container gardening forum. I think it's generally advisable to roughly try and keep the amount of aboveground pruning and belowground pruning equivalent. I'm also still rather new to growing plants more seriously so I keep many of my pruning adventures limited to about 1/3 of the existing growth unless I'm supremely confident in the particular plant I'm working on.

If the plant has been in the same pot/growing medium for about 2 years, a repot would probably be prudent. I'm a big fan of root pruning and don't have any issues as long as the tools I'm using are clean and sharp. Since this plant is a pachycaul I don't think you'd have to worry too much about keeping the roots moist while root pruning, but I don't know for sure so take that with a grain of salt. Root pruning is nearly always going to result in greater vitality for the plant over the long term and I think it's a good practice to engage in. And as Al has brought up many times, it's not so much the pot size that matters, but what's in the pot. So if you use a soil medium that drains well, I see no reason why you couldn't repot the plant in the same pot after giving the roots a whack.

For timing, I'd say around the end of May is probably a safe bet. I think early spring has generally been a time that's thought of as best for repotting/pruning, however I tend to agree more with the idea that it's more optimal to wait until spring is in full swing and the days are noticeably longer. By the end of May the engine is fully up and running so to speak and the plant has had a chance to build up some reserves of energy (this is my understanding). Waiting until the plant has gotten to this state drastically reduces the recovery time from pruning/root work compared to doing it in early spring when the plant is at the lowest point in terms of energy reserves after the short days of winter. Hope this helps and please let us know how it goes.