Duranta “Sweet Memories” Pruning
Question from Cheryl:
I am NOT a gardener and have had a dirt yard for 11 years. I finally had a friend install sprinklers and plants and promptly move away and left me on my own. Against my fence he put a Duranta and in six months it has grown to 8 feet tall and four feet wide, and has grown tall, thin and gangly with shoots in all directions. If I cut it back short will it get thick and more bush like? Or shall I just snip the tops to keep it under control? How do they take to pollarding?
Answer from Pat:
Pigeon berry or sky flower (Duranta repens) is one of the most attractive and colorful quick-growing shrubs we have in our Southern California plant palette. It grows rapidly in the shape of an upright wall and is useful as a screening plant. There is a 30 foot tall hedge of it in front of a house in Point Loma. Most people would rather not let it grow that tall since one must hire help to prune it. Instead, pinch it back with clippers and trim it often to keep it in bounds. Otherwise it sends out long shoots. Cut these shoots back by two-thirds of their length when they are growing in an ungainly manner. I have occasionally seen it grown as a tree on a single trunk and then it can be trained into a small to medium size weeping tree and even kept to about ten feet in height with frequent pruning. I know one that is grown this way in front of a wall next to an entry way gate. Another duranta I am familiar with is used as a sort of thick espalier against a south-facing garage wall. The gardener who planted it prunes it whenever it begins to shoot out of bounds. Duranta needs regular water and full sun. The berries are poisonous but very pretty. Both flowers and berries can be on the plant at the same time. In my opinion it’s one of our better plants and largely trouble free.
Photo by tanakawho 
Those are great ideas, Pat! Thank you. I guess the best way to start is to cut back all those crazy upward shoots by two thirds of their lengths, and then I will stay more on top of it. I would love to train it into a weeping tree. Some of the lower shoots kind of do that already just from the lack of strength in the branches, but the upper ones shoot up and out like bottle rockets! They certainly are very pretty! Thanks again.
You could still train it into a weeping tree, but in that case there will be a blank, see-through area at the bottom where you see the trunks and beyond to what is back behind it. If you want a screen be sure to make it “narrower above, wider below” so that light reaches all parts then it will grow thick like a hedge to the bottom. If you want a tree look then you can allow the upper parts to be bigger than the lower parts which will be more bare like the trunk of a tree, but yours will be a multi-trunked tree. Yes that is one good way to deal with duranta. Depending on where it is placed in your landscape you can decide how to shape it, either as a tree, or as a solid shrub.
Hi Pat,
I, first, spotted a Duranta where my daughter lives and fell in love with it, especially the little flowers! Are the little orange things, the seeds? We live in the North Bay area of California. My Duranta dies back every Winter due to frost. This year, I am taking to pruning it down to about 3 feet as to try to prevent the frost from killing it. It comes back every year, though.
I would like to Espalier it, but haven’t the slightest idea how to start, except by stringing wire along my fence or maybe in front of it. If this doesn’t work, then, I like the idea of the weeping tree; however, there are MANY intertwining branches. How can I do either method? I would like a step by step, starting with the espalier, then the weeping tree.
Thank you.
Cutting back a tropical plant prior to frost might unfortunately kill it. Always wait until all danger of frost is past. When you see signs of growth in spring, then you can safely cut back to the new growth. The frostbitten wood helps to protect the rest of the plant in winter. Covering the plant with a sheet of plastic or a bed sheet when frost is expected can help protect it, but remove the protection early in the morning before sun strikes the plant so heat does not build up inside it.
For espalier, I suggest looking online or in a pruning book for drawings if possible shapes and then tie up the branches against the fence in the shape of a fountain as they grow and spreading them out sideways parallel to the ground. You could use wires or screw hooks into the fence to hold branches gently in place.
The beadlike yellow berries contain seeds. Beware because these yellow berries, though pretty, are poisonous.
Dear Pat,
I have a Duranta as you had mentioned above, grown as a tree. I have put it in the ground and now all the branches are growing straight up, rather than weeping., which is my desired shape. Should I top these branches? They don’t seem to want to bend and “weep” over, and are already about 12 feet tall. I have always been very hesitant to top a tree of any kind.
Many Thanks!
I suggest you do not cut back your Duranta. There is no way you can make this plant bend to your will by pruning it. You will only ruin it. Later on, however, in spring you could begin training the branches to bend down by attaching weights to them as the Japanese do to the branches of trees if they want them to bend downwards.
Duranta ’Sweet Memories’ is a hybrid or selection of Duranta erecta, not D. repens. As it grows its branches should naturally weep but the trunk will not. Additionally, climate change is making many plants grow taller and more robustly than we have been familiar with in the past. ’Sweet Memories’ is supposed to be a more compact form of Duranta erecta, but may act differently than we have had a right to expect in the past, that is, it may grow larger than expected.
It is still early in the year. I believe as the year goes by you will see so much floral beauty from this plant that you will forgive it for being more like a tree than a shrub. A second result of climate change is an excessively abundant floral display. Climate change has many negatives, but even this has some good characteristics as well.
So glad to find your site! I purchased this wonderful looking plant growing up a stake at (ashamed to say) Home Depot, but there was no tag on it, only a partially readable inimata something Sweet Memory, and the HD help didn’t have a clue. I bought it because I was intrigued by it and just did a web search, which is how I found you. The pic is a dead match. Is this Sweet Memory deciduous or evergreen, and what is it’s bloom cycle? I’m in the south bay area. Thank you.
‘Sweet Memories’ is the patented name of a variety of Duranta erecta developed by Monrovia Nursery: Common names include golden dewdrop, pigeon berry and skyflower. It’s a tall evergreen shrub that grows fast, needs regular water, and pruning to control. It thrives in hot sun and blooms all summer. Yellow berries appearing in long strands in fall. They are pretty but very poisonous.
Don’t be ashamed of buying things at Home Depot. This time you found something really good!