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 MAINTAINING YOUR PLANTS: PRUNING
There are several ways to prune your plants, and several reasons to do so. But there are also a few things that have to be taken into consideration.
A gardener in the botanical garden loved flowers. He knew, they usually came on the latest growth, and he newer pruned his plants. He ended up with massive plants, growing in 100l tubs. There were no room left in is houses. I took over, and had a hell, cutting back the plants and re-potting them to pots!
We are too kind to most of our plants, and they grow into monsters within a few years. To obtain a "natural look", and still have room for them, we have to cut them back. Some plants take it nice, other suffers and can even die.

I guess we all can agree; often pinching, like the animals do work the best. But when we fail to do that, we end up with bigger tasks. And now, we have to think.

Newer prune a dormant plant! You open up to live tissue, but it won't grow a callus, covering the wound. Fungus and bacteria will have free access to the live tissue, and eat the plant.
It is so tempting to prune the plant late in the autumn, when it looses it leaves, but it is dangerous. It is way better to do it during the growth season.
I pruned my plants in the early autumn, and forced them into dormancy at the same time. It worked well, but is tricky.

Balance roots and branches. Some plants can suffer from being pruned too hard. The rots produces hormones to increase the top, and it do the same to encourage root-growth. That make the plant "balance". If you remove a better part of the top, it might die.
What you should do, besides from small, often pinching, is to only prune half or a third of the plant, at a time. When the pruned part have grown some new leaves, take the next part. You can also prune the roots, and re-pot at the same time.

Re-potting to the same size of pot means pruning the roots. Then it is a real good idea to balance the cutting with a trim of the top. I always get away with sawing off a third of the heavily entangled roots, and just filled that space with new soil.

Old and new branches have to be considered. Some plants can live for "an eternity", if you let it have new branches from time to time. At the same time, some plants benefit from being "opened up" a bit. Remove some of the old central branches to let light into the middle of the plant. Else, it end up looking like a hedge.

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