Big Sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata) is a common plant in the arid and semi-arid west. It is a plant that gives that distinctive and wonderful aroma to the area. Although it grows in many areas, I first experienced it here in New Mexico, and so it is a fragrance that I associated with what is now home. It it a plant used to make smudge sticks for clearing bad energy from a place. It has attractive silvery leaves.
Here you can see why it is called “tridentata." Each leaf ends with three lobes. Isn't it cute?
In the garden, its rugged appearance is best used in an informal area or as a counterpoint to more formal looking plants. It can be used in neglected, sunny dry areas. I have it in a minimal maintenance area against some rather stiffly upright dark green mountain mahoganies, where its silver leaves stand out. I love it for its toughness and fragrance.
Without maintenance, the plant can easily survive, but the appearance is rather ragged. The faded flower stems will turn brown and obscure the silver leaves. It’s not that the plant needs maintenance to survive, but in a garden, it looks best when groomed. Here it is used as a hellstrip plant, and is maintained by shearing once a year. Not so attractive and you probably wonder why anyone would want to grow it.
Yes, for best garden appearance, Big Sagebrush does need some maintenance. As I’m doing the last of my fall cleanup, I realize that this is a great time to do it. The weather is sunny and warm, and it is a pleasant way to spend time in the garden, surrounded by the sweet fragrance made even stronger by the pruning. My garden plants, since they were pruned back last year, still have the seed heads, but have not yet turned brown. The stems are still green, but the pollination season is over. There is still a lot of pollen among the leaves and stems, so if you are allergic, wear a dust mask while pruning/grooming these plants.
Here is one of my plants before grooming.
It is my opinion that pruning is best done to enhance a plant’s natural habit, not to change it or make it look like some other plant, or into some artificial form. This case is no exception. The best way to understand how to prune or groom a plant is to observe how it grows, and then do your work based on the growth habit.
In the case of Artemisia tridentata, the plant grows in the spring and summer, with a number of new growths at the ends of the branches. Although during the growth period the stems are all vegetative, almost all of them grow rapidly to as much as 12 inches and turn into flowering stems. After the inconspicuous flowers fade, the seeds form and those stems die back to the main stem. The growth at the very end of the branch grows slowly, perhaps an inch or two, and stays vegetative.
Knowing this is the key to how to groom these plants. The type of grooming I’m going to describe is labor intensive and is best used if you have only a few plants or those that are in prominent places. The way to do it is to remove the flowering stems without removing the growth points which are buried among the faded flowering stems, using your hand pruners. You want to remove these stems as close to the main stem as possible, avoiding long stubs. One way of doing this by pruning them from the bottom toward the tip, keeping an eye on the growing tip to avoid pruning it out. Another way is to hold the pruners upside-down, so that you hook the bottom of the pruner around the base of the flowering stem, slide it down to where it meets the main stem, and then cut. With practice, you can do this very quickly.
Or like this:
If you do prune out the growing point, it’s not a big deal since there are many more growth points, both visible and dormant, below it that can develop. You may even prune it out intentionally in order to have a bushier plant. The plant will take longer to grow larger if that’s what you want. I like to leave the terminal growth point in order to have a leafier end product right after grooming, and to have a more rugged plant appearance rather than a gumdrop with shoots growing out of it.
Before:
After:
You can also take the opportunity to remove the dead branches which may be deep within the plant.
Before:
After:
It may seem like you are removing so much that there isn’t much left, but surprisingly there is still an leafy plant left.
After all the faded flowering stems are removed, you can prune the bush to shape.
See? Much better.
Here you can see why it is called “tridentata." Each leaf ends with three lobes. Isn't it cute?
In the garden, its rugged appearance is best used in an informal area or as a counterpoint to more formal looking plants. It can be used in neglected, sunny dry areas. I have it in a minimal maintenance area against some rather stiffly upright dark green mountain mahoganies, where its silver leaves stand out. I love it for its toughness and fragrance.
Without maintenance, the plant can easily survive, but the appearance is rather ragged. The faded flower stems will turn brown and obscure the silver leaves. It’s not that the plant needs maintenance to survive, but in a garden, it looks best when groomed. Here it is used as a hellstrip plant, and is maintained by shearing once a year. Not so attractive and you probably wonder why anyone would want to grow it.
Yes, for best garden appearance, Big Sagebrush does need some maintenance. As I’m doing the last of my fall cleanup, I realize that this is a great time to do it. The weather is sunny and warm, and it is a pleasant way to spend time in the garden, surrounded by the sweet fragrance made even stronger by the pruning. My garden plants, since they were pruned back last year, still have the seed heads, but have not yet turned brown. The stems are still green, but the pollination season is over. There is still a lot of pollen among the leaves and stems, so if you are allergic, wear a dust mask while pruning/grooming these plants.
Here is one of my plants before grooming.
It is my opinion that pruning is best done to enhance a plant’s natural habit, not to change it or make it look like some other plant, or into some artificial form. This case is no exception. The best way to understand how to prune or groom a plant is to observe how it grows, and then do your work based on the growth habit.
In the case of Artemisia tridentata, the plant grows in the spring and summer, with a number of new growths at the ends of the branches. Although during the growth period the stems are all vegetative, almost all of them grow rapidly to as much as 12 inches and turn into flowering stems. After the inconspicuous flowers fade, the seeds form and those stems die back to the main stem. The growth at the very end of the branch grows slowly, perhaps an inch or two, and stays vegetative.
Knowing this is the key to how to groom these plants. The type of grooming I’m going to describe is labor intensive and is best used if you have only a few plants or those that are in prominent places. The way to do it is to remove the flowering stems without removing the growth points which are buried among the faded flowering stems, using your hand pruners. You want to remove these stems as close to the main stem as possible, avoiding long stubs. One way of doing this by pruning them from the bottom toward the tip, keeping an eye on the growing tip to avoid pruning it out. Another way is to hold the pruners upside-down, so that you hook the bottom of the pruner around the base of the flowering stem, slide it down to where it meets the main stem, and then cut. With practice, you can do this very quickly.
Or like this:
If you do prune out the growing point, it’s not a big deal since there are many more growth points, both visible and dormant, below it that can develop. You may even prune it out intentionally in order to have a bushier plant. The plant will take longer to grow larger if that’s what you want. I like to leave the terminal growth point in order to have a leafier end product right after grooming, and to have a more rugged plant appearance rather than a gumdrop with shoots growing out of it.
Before:
After:
You can also take the opportunity to remove the dead branches which may be deep within the plant.
Before:
After:
It may seem like you are removing so much that there isn’t much left, but surprisingly there is still an leafy plant left.
After all the faded flowering stems are removed, you can prune the bush to shape.
See? Much better.
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