Pruning is definitely advisable as it has many benefits: It enables you to form the shape of your plants. It gives the plant a neat appearance and will induce new growth. After pruning each cut stem will produce 2 or 3 flowering stems the following season. As the plant gets older and the number of stems increase the length of the stems will decrease. To produce longer stems, remove whole stem from the centre of the plant out thus thinning the bush out. The best time to Prune differs between certain varieties: Leucadendron, Leucospermum, Aulax & Mimetes: These plants will flower each year. Once the plant has finished flowering or the plant has lost its colour and cones have dried out. Remove the heads by cutting back the stem, leave 10 – 15cm of healthy stem with at least 5 to 7 healthy leaves. Stems which are not flowering be can cut back to the same length. Also remove any weak or unhealthy branches. Protea and Telopea: They are pruned in pretty much the same way as Leucadendron except non-flowering branches must not be cut back as they will bear the flowers for the following season. Serruria: You can either cut the flowers to use as cut flowers in a vase or you can remove them directly after flowering, leave about 8 cm of healthy stem with leaves from which it can reshoot. Remove any unhealthy, bent or those which are growing towards the ground. Each cut stem will produce shoots which will flower the following year After pruning Serruria shoot fairly quickly. If you wish to have a more compact plant with shorter flower stems, tip prune your plants when the new growth is 10 to 15cm long. Geraldton Wax Head cut the entire plant after flowering, about 5 cm higher than the previous year's prune Brunia and Berzelia Prune shoots after flowering (it takes two years for a shoot to flower)