Tips for Pruning Trailing Plants

By Kelly Miller

Potted trailing plants look beautiful when their foliage is allowed to grow long and dangle down from a shelf or hanging basket. In time, however, that same growth can start to become straggly and thin. Occasionally pruning trailing plants can be the key to keeping your plant lush and healthy in the center, while still keeping a touch of a “jungle” effect if that’s what you prefer.

The benefits of pruning trailing plants include:

• Pruning allows more of the plant’s energy to refocus on the center of the plant to ensure it stays lush and full.
• Flowering trailing plants put energy into making more flower buds instead of the stems just growing long and sparse.
• It’s an opportunity to shape the plant, making sure it has a symmetrical form and doesn’t become lop-sided.
• Reduces the need for frequent repotting by maintaining a balance between the amount of foliage and the amount of roots the pot can support.
• Pruning stimulates new bud development. Older plant stems can be reinvigorated when pruned and are more likely to produce a flush of new growth.  
• Cuttings may be used to propagate new plants to share with friends and family.
• If the trailing stems have become thick, overlapped and entwined, thinning them can improve the aesthetics and the air flow around the plant.

Here’s all you need to know about why, when, and how to trim leggy growth from your trailing plants. 

What Are Trailing Plants?

Trailing plants produce long stems that grow along the ground. Trailing growth spreads horizontally, not vertically, and won’t stay upright without support. Climbing and vining plants grow similarly long, leggy stems, but they have ways of attaching themselves to surfaces in order to grow vertically.

Trailing plants are perfect for hanging baskets or shelves, where their long growth can spill over the sides. Some climbing plants can be grown in the same way, by letting their growth fall downward instead of giving it a surface to climb on.

Many trailing plants make great houseplants. You can grow them outdoors, too. However, note that many popular trailing and vining plants spread aggressively. Before putting a plant outdoors, even in a container, make sure it’s not invasive in your region.

Popular Trailing and Climbing Plants for Containers

There are some trailing plants that have emerged as favorites among gardeners and houseplant lovers. Certain flowering annuals offer a cascade of blooms from summer right up to frosts. Indoors you can opt for fast-growing varieties to take advantage of vertical space or create filtered shade in front of a bright window. There are even small varieties of edibles that will grow happily in a hanging basket or patio pot.

Colorful Trailing Annuals

Trailing summer annuals offer a long season of color and drama. Here are a few of the most popular annuals for growing in pots and hanging baskets:

Dichondra (Dichondra species)

Dichondra’s cascading silver stems and foliage add shimmering shine to the garden. An easy to grow, versatile selection that is heat and drought tolerant. Dependable color and texture looks great all season. Superb for baskets, containers, window boxes, and combination plantings. Tumbles beautifully over rocks, slopes, and banks.

Trailing, Spreading Petunia (Petunia hybrid)

The perfect petunia for creating a carpet of color and fragrance. Trailing petunias make a great seasonal groundcover for sunny locations. They’re also terrific for growing in containers, hanging baskets, window boxes, or planted near a wall where the foliage can flow over the edge with a cascade of colorful blooms.

Fuchsia (Fuchsia hybrid)

Fuchsia’s dangling blooms are well-loved by gardeners and hummingbirds. Brings grace, color and and a touch of old-fashioned charm to the garden. Growth habits from upright to trailing make it easy to find a Fuchsia suited to baskets, beds or containers. Perfect for all kinds of containers, including window boxes, hanging baskets and combination planters. Terrific plant for hummingbird gardens.

Verbena (Verbena hybrid)

Verbena is a vigorous, low-maintenance flowering annual selection. Clusters of colorful blooms contrast nicely with the highly textured, dark green leaves. This is a great choice for adding long-season color to combination planters or grown alone in a pot or hanging basket. Perfectly sized for rock gardens and border fronts. Superb for baskets, containers and window boxes.

Sweet Potato Vine (Ipomoea batatas)

Trailing vines of attractive leaves perfect for adding the finishing touch or a bit of pizzazz to mixed plantings. Depending on variety chosen, leaf colors range from lime green to deep black-purple shades and they may be heart or palm shaped. Perfect for all kinds of containers, including window boxes, hanging baskets and combination planters. A reliable groundcover for any location.

Calibrachoa (Calibrachoa hybrid)

Blooms resembling miniature petunias cover an abundance of trailing stems in a lush and colorful display. A tender perennial most commonly grown as an annual. Easy care and heat tolerant. Many botanical authorities consider Calibrachoa to belong to the genus petunia. Perfect for all kinds of containers, including window boxes, hanging baskets and combination planters. Looks great in rock gardens.

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Trailing Houseplants

Foliage plants add life and bring a touch of nature to indoor décor. Here are several that are easy-care and quick-growing so you can enjoy a lush display in the shortest period of time:

Variegated Spider Plant ‘Variegatum’ Indoors (Chlorophytum comosum)

This is the classic spider plant that has been a popular, easy-care houseplant for generations. Produces grassy green and white variegated foliage with long, arching stems bearing tiny white flowers and baby plants called “spiderettes”. A favorite for growing in a hanging basket or on a plant stand.

String of Pearls (Senecio rowleyanus)

Dangling strands of ball-like foliage look just like strands of pearls. A very unusual plant that offers a nice change from leafy tropical plants. The unique form brings an artistic, sculptural quality to a room. Keep away from pets as this plant could make them sick if ingested.

Heart-Leaf Philodendron ‘Brasil’ (Philodendron hederaceum)

‘Brasil’ offers a colorful twist on a plant that has been a houseplant favorite for generations. That’s because heart-leaf Philodendrons are some of the easiest tropical plants to grow indoors. They tolerate all kinds of neglect including low light, poor soil and inconsistent watering. This is a great first-time houseplant or gift plant.

Inch Plant, Wandering Jew Indoors (Tradescantia fluminensis)

Inch plant is a long-standing favorite for growing as houseplant and a great plant for beginners. This vigorous trailing plant thrives under indoor conditions. The species has green foliage but cultivars are available with colorful variegated leaves. Small white blooms pop up intermittently throughout the year. Place where the vines can fall freely or trail along a shelf for the best effect.

Golden Pothos, Devil’s Ivy (Epipremnum aureum)

Truly one of the toughest, most popular and easy care houseplants! Golden Pothos sends out trailing stems of green leaves, variegated with white or gold. The variegation is more pronounced when they are grown in bright light, but they do adapt to lower light levels. Place where the vines can fall freely or trail along a shelf for the best effect.

Lysimachia, Creeping Jenny, Moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia)

Creeping Jenny is a reliable garden favorite that has become especially popular for growing in pots and hanging baskets where it can cascade beautifully down the sides of the container. In the garden it is a creeping plant that forms a dense mat of small, rounded leaves perfect for use as a groundcover. Cup-shaped, bright yellow flowers appear nearly all summer.

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Trailing Edibles

These edibles have attractive foliage and produce small fruits that can be enjoyed as a snack or sliced into a salad. Trailing herbs add fragrance to an area as well as providing fresh foliage for flavoring a wide variety of meals.  

Peas ‘Tom Thumb’ (Pisum sativum var. sativum)

‘Tom Thumb’ is a dwarf heirloom pea variety that has been grown in England since the 1800’s. Perfect for containers or small-space gardens, this compact plant requires no staking and produces loads of sweet pea pods. So tender they can be eaten whole or shelled. Superb for eating fresh, steamed, or stir-fried.

Strawberry Hanging Basket (Fragaria )

Growing strawberry plants in a hanging basket is an ideal solution for small-space gardens. Strawberry plants have attractive foliage and often produce summer and fall crops of sweet flavorful berries. Compact size is also perfect for growing in patio pots on a deck or balcony. Fresh strawberries are an excellent addition to a fruit tray or eaten as a snack. Delicious in pies, tarts, jams, and preserves.

Mouse Melon, Cucamelon (Melothria scabra)

Mouse melon, also known as cucamelon, produces an abundance of small fruits that resemble tiny watermelons. They have sweet cucumber flavor, followed by a tangy sourness. Melothria scabra is a vining plant, native to Mexico, and typically grown as an annual. A good choice for container growing. 

Oregano (Origanum vulgare)

Oregano is valued in the kitchen for its peppery flavored, aromatic foliage. This bushy perennial herb forms upright to spreading mounds. Masses of small pink flowers in midsummer. Culinary herb for gardens and containers. Excellent for flavoring a variety of dishes. Use leaves fresh, or dry and keep in an airtight container. Wash fruits, vegetables and herbs thoroughly before eating.

Cherry Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum)

Cherry tomatoes produce an abundance of bright red, flavorful little tomatoes. Their compact size is perfect for growing in patio pots or small-space gardens. Indeterminate vines produce a continuous supply of fruit until frost. Determinate plants produce one large crop. Eat fresh for a delicious and nutritious snack. Perfect for grilling on shish kebab skewers. Serve with dip on a vegetable tray.

English Thyme, Common Thyme, Garden Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)

An evergreen herb, with dainty but flavorful leaves most popular in cooked dishes. Harvest thyme sprigs as needed and cut back to about 3″ (1cm) two or three times per season to encourage thicker growth. Easily dried for long-term storage. Commonly used for seasoning meats, fish, poultry, soups and vegetables. Plant near walkways, decks and patios where scent can be enjoyed.

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Tips for Displaying Trailing Growth

Trailing plants look their best when they are allowed to grow freely. Potted trailing plants are usually elevated from ground level, allowing the trailing growth to drape downward. Placing pots on a shelf or a tall plant stand is a great way to display potted trailing plants and allow the foliage to cascade freely.

Trailing plants are often grown in hanging baskets attached to porches, fences, balconies, or indoor ceilings. A hanging basket overflowing with blooms is a colorful, inviting feature around the perimeter of a home or garden.

Trailing plants are also perfect for window boxes and porch rail planters. A single potted flowering plant can be used to create a lavish floral centerpiece for a patio table. The cascading growth hides the sides of the planter and creates a bold mass of color.

When a climbing plant begins producing long stems or vines, it’s helpful to guide, or “train” the growth in the desired direction. Helping a plant climb upward may involve draping stems over support structures such as a stake or trellis or tying them on with twine. Trailing growth is easier to manage. Simply help the stems travel over the edge of their container if they don’t get there on their own.

As trailing growth gets longer, it may require more guidance. For example, growth that’s trailing down from a shelf may fall onto other wall-mounted objects. In that case, if you don’t want to prune your plant, you can use simple Command™ hooks or pegs to gently redirect growth around obstacles. It’s worth noting that, while it may be fun to see how long you can grow your pothos vines and drape the vines around a room or your office cubicle, in the long term allowing this kind of unchecked growth is not beneficial to the health of your plant.

If a plant’s trailing growth is leggy, while the potted growth is thin, you can redirect stems to make the pot fuller. All you need is a large, U-shaped hairpin. Gently curl a trailing stem back into the pot, then use the pin to secure the growth to the soil. Position the stem so that a node (a point where a new shoot is emerging) is pushed into the soil. The node will then create new roots and stems that help fill out the pot.

When Do Trailing Plants Require Pruning?

Trailing, climbing, and vining plants all benefit from regular pruning. Pruning is helpful for removing dead material, encouraging fuller growth, and tidying up messy or leggy stems.

The best seasons for pruning are spring and summer, when the plant is growing and able to quickly recover from snips. Prune whenever dead growth develops, when leggy growth needs to be controlled, or when you want to generate new stems.

To avoid shocking the plant, space out pruning sessions. Never prune more than one third of a plant’s total growth at once.

How to Prune Trailing Growth

To prune trailing plants, use a sharp, clean pair of scissors or shears to snip off stems.

First, cut off dead growth and long, bare stems that aren’t producing any leaves. These are “maintenance” cuts that eliminate waste and reduce clutter.

Before making cuts, identify where nodes occur along the trailing stems. A node is the point on a stem where new growth (buds, leaves, or twigs) branches out. Nodes represent growth zones—starting points for new stems. These points can become entirely new plants. That’s why propagating a plant from a cutting always involves removing a stem with at least one node.

When pruning a plant to encourage healthy new growth, the best place to make a cut is just past a node. These cuts remove the main stem’s growth beyond the node, but leave the node intact. This encourages the plant to redirect its energy into the node, promoting strong new growth. With many trailing plants, pruning will result in multiple new stems branching out from the same point, leading to fuller, bushier trailing growth. 

More Ideas for Displaying Trailing Plants

Indoors or outdoors, trailing plants are terrific for making a space feel more lush, colorful, and artistic. Discover more ways to beautifully display trailing growth in our guide: Ideas for Hanging Indoor Plants.