Native Plants

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Tuesday - April 22, 2008

From: Austin , Texas, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Pruning, Trees
Title: Clipping of beans from newly planted Tecoma stans
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

I purchased a Esperanza Plant in a pot from a nursery in April of 2008. We planted it and it is doing fine, but came with blooms and beans. Do I need to do clip or prune the beans at this stage of growth?

ANSWER:

Tecoma stans (yellow trumpetbush), also called Esperanza, is an excellent West Texas native plant, hardy in mild winters to Central Texas. This article by Dr. William F. Welch on the Esperanza (Tecoma stans), from Texas Cooperative Extension, Texas A&M University, gives more details on its care. The seed pods appear right after blooming, throughout the growing season. If you are not interested in propagating the plant using seeds, you might as well clip them off. Possibly this will inspire the plant to produce more blooms, to produce more seeds, to produce more plants..... And it will likely look more tidy, too.

From the Image Gallery

Yellow bells
Tecoma stans