By Melinda Myers

Keep your houseplants looking their best with a bit of pinching, trimming and cleanup. A few well-placed snips can improve a plant’s appearance and create cuttings to start new plants.

Start by removing any dead stems and leaves. Improve the overall beauty of spider plants, dracaenas and palms by trimming away the brown leaf tips caused by fluoride from tap water accumulating in the leaves. Avoid the problem by using rainwater, well water or water treated by reverse osmosis.

Trimming to improve the plant’s growth habit and size can provide immediate and long-term benefits. Removing a small or large portion of the stem tip encourages the plant to form more branches and compact growth. When you remove the stem tip you reduce the amount of the growth hormone auxin that pro

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