How, and why to do strategic trimming of cycads

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I've had cycads in my garden for many years now and this is the first year that I'm doing what I call "strategic trimming". And it just has to do with how cycads grow. If you're familiar with cycads, this will make sense.

As you know, cycads grow in flushes, and during that time their leaves are soft. Once the flush is finished, the leaves harden off, but if there's an obstacle, like another plant, that smushes against it during a flush, that leaf will harden off in smushed-up way, and will look like that forever. And in the past this hasn't been a problem as my cycads were small enough that they really didn't make contact with anything that might smush them as they flushed, but in recent years I've noticed some smushing, which looks terrible. So this year I'm doing something about it. I'm calling it "strategic trimming".

While the plants are flushing, I'm watching what they might smush into, and am trimming away obstacles. I trimmed away last season's leaves from the dioon that you see on the left, to allow the dioon on the right to flush without running into them. And as the other dioon grows I'll watch to be sure that I minimize obstacles. If necessary, although I would hate to do it, I will trim another leaf from an adjoining cycad. But I think that if I watch carefully, I can just do some gentle staking. That's the strategy.

Cycads grow fast when they start to flush, so I look carefully every day. Once the flushes are finished, in a few days, I can sit back and relax, and just enjoy their beauty.

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