Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
This is a very new plant that has just come and bred in the last ten years for ornamental
use. This is called an ornamental sweet potato vine. It is a sweet potato. If you look down
underneath, there are sweet potatoes under. Just like in the field you’ll see them in
ground. You dig them up. But this one is raised for the leaves that are very pretty. It likes
sun and it will take over the whole world. You have to trim it back because it will take
over all the blooming flowers and then you will only have green so it is a good plant,
but it has to be kept in balance. So Laura’s going to trim it back over here so it doesn’t
grow in with the petunias.
I am just cutting back to control it so we, we just want to keep the pretty colors. It’s
too much green taking over.
These are the brown bags we use for … In this country, you must put only green things
in the brown bag for composting. You can not put any paper or plastic in the bag because
these are put in the compost pile. Then we have to trim the yellow plant. That’s a
gold privet and we try to keep it trimmed back, so we’re going to prune that now.
It does not flower, so we do not have to worry about flowers. We just trim it in a circle.
When we prune these bushes too, we try to make it so the top is smaller than the bottom.
That way, because if you make, if you trim the bush all one size where it’s all even,
then the sun doesn’t reach to the bottom and then the bottom ends up dying. So you
want to try to narrow the top off and keep the bottom bigger.
That is a good rule of thumb for all pruning bushes, to keep the bottom wider than the
top. We’re at Joe Kool’s restaurant, wonderful place to eat.
I’m pruning with a hand pruner. Sometimes we prune with the hedge shears. They are easier
to make a round ball with, but many people do not like the round ball. They like the
more natural shape. So for a more natural shape, we have to use the hand pruners because
you can make it different heights like feathering your hair.