When you prune a healthy aeonium, you'll get multiple buds that break back from just above old leaf bundle scars immediately proximal to the pruning cut. To avoid unsightly scarring and unnecessary dieback at the pruning wound site, wait for the wound to stop bleeding sap, then wipe the wound clean of sap and seal it with waterproof wood glue.

Keep in mind that WHERE you prune, you'll end up with several new branches that all sport rosettes. These plants can be very easily started in a fast draining medium - no rooting aid required - just make sure the soil drains VERY well. I use the gritty mix to start all my succulents.

Try taking a long cutting and plant it deep - right to the bottom of the rosette. Grow it for a year and then truncate it where the thin stem becomes fatter. Don't forget the wood glue. Rub off all but 5-7 new branches as they form so what remains are 5-7 evenly spaced branches that emerge from the stem at the pruning site. You'll end up with something like this:

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which is sort of a unique shape for aeonium.

Al

Thanks for the tips Al. I will definitely try the method described to get a plant like in your picture. I do like that shape a lot.

As for my current plant, I guess I just cant get a feel for how it should look or how I want it to look. We all know how some plants can grow quite wild while traveling through the nurseries and garden centers and it looks like I'm a victim of that. Besides thinning the huge bottom leaves of the terminal rosette, I'm leaning towards letting the mother plant grow as is for a while then work on pruning and taking cuttings after it has grown a bit and adjusted to it's new setting.

Plant details: approx. 12" tall
set of 10 branches 3" from the ground
6" of bare trunk between sets of branches
7 new branches emerging at the top, right below the terminal rosette

When you consider the o/a appearance, you need to take into account that if you have a lot of branches emerging from the main stem at the same ht, you're going to get an ugly swelling there, something you can probably already see. Potentially, you have a LOT of plants growing on just the one in the picture, so I wouldn't really be to worried about messing up. If you have an aeonium, you have an aeonium for life, because they are so easy to propagate from cuttings. You can see the adventitious roots hanging off the plant now, which means that there are LOTS of preformed root primordia just waiting to be put to work.

I think you have 2 choices insofar as pruning options go. When you do this sort of depends on where you live.

1) You could cut all the branches that emerge in the first whorl from the soil to different lengths, then truncate the main stem so it's slightly taller than any of the lower branches. If you do this, you'll get multiple branches occurring just behind the pruning cut, so you'll have a very compact plant with lots of rosettes at the end of every branch. It takes a little faith to do this, because your plant will be completely bare, but I do it all the time with not even a second thought.

2) You could truncate the main stem immediately above the whorl of lower branches. Then remove all but 2 branches from the branches in the whorl. The 2 branches you keep will be the one growing closest to verticle, and the one growing closest to horizontal. Truncate the horizontal branch about 2" away from the stem and leave the other branch to grow a while. Later, you'll truncate the verticle branch, and save 1 verticle and 1 horizontal; the horizontal branch should be anywhere from 2/3 of the way around the stem to opposite of the lower branch. Using that method, you will have clusters of rosettes at different hts and radiating out from the stem in a staggered pattern around the stem.

Looking at thousands of bonsai plants has taught me how to bring balance to plant compositions, and it makes a huge difference in eye appeal. Even the choice of pot can be the difference between something that looks balanced vs just an incongruent plant or grouping.

Al

Very interesting stuff! Thanks Al.