I bought a Tibouchina recently and plan to try growing it as a standard. I realize that it may or may not survive the winter - my choice is between outside, right beside the house but still cold, or inside, warmer but in a place with very little light - but I'll give it a try. My question arises from the fact that it is already about 8' high, so I need to cut the top somewhere. At intervals of 8" to 1' there are nodes where branches come off, or seem likely to come off, the stem; does anyone know where I should cut it in relation to those nodes? Just below one? Just above one (seems most likely to me)? In the middle?
For sure you want to "top" it just above one of these branches, not in the middle of a length of trunk. I have seen pics of these surviving outside in very protected areas in the Seattle region...so it may make it thru at least a mild winter here if well sited. May look like crap in spring so a lot of recovering likely needed. I do just keep mine in a container in a cold greenhouse overwinter, and it also needs to recover in spring, so there! They make nice standard specimens alright...tho I would tend to take a few cuttings now and then (easy rooting) in case you lose the mother plant, and also because these things can get big and ugly eventually and you might want to start again with something younger and fresher looking.
