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Monday - April 26, 2010

From: Houston, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Pruning, Shrubs
Title: Young yaupon trunks bending in Houston
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

I have new yaupon in this their second summer which are bending over about half-way up their trunk, at around two feet - do I trim them or stake them?

ANSWER:

We would recommend staking them. This is a small, young plant-start pruning away the leaves and your plant loses its "factories" (the leaves) for producing the food the whole plant needs to stay alive. The Ilex vomitoria (yaupon) is a resilient survivor plant, so if winds or loose soil or whatever cause it to bend over, it might continue to grow that way, which probably wasn't what you had in mind. This eHow article How to Stake a Plant has about the clearest instructions we found for your project.

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