Pruning: A Cut Above

The word "pruning" can strike fear in the hearts of some home gardeners. After all, after paying a bundle to landscape your garden, you may feel squeamish about cutting off those high-dollar shoots and branches.

Yet, gardeners who've been around the block with their lopping shears know that correct pruning will result in a better looking tree/shrub, more flowers/leaves and possibly, most importantly, a healthier specimen. Of course, pruning is also used to keep your garden from resembling a jungle. Plants, particularly trees and hedges, have a tendency to take over your yard (and your neighbor's) if not pruned regularly.

Prime time for pruning is right now, particularly for deciduous plants and trees. However, evergreen plants can usually be pruned anytime of the year whenever you deem it necessary. Please note: spring-blooming trees and shrubs should not be pruned now. Instead, prune them as soon as possible after they're finished blooming. Plants like lilac, dogwood, redbud, viburnum, forsythia, spirea and flowering crabapples bloom from old wood rather than newer growth.

When pruning, for the most part don't be timid.With the exception of topping or scalping, pruned specimens will have an amazing resiliency to bounce back if an error is made. In fact, pruning actually stimulates growth. Don't be afraid about making a wrong cut here or there because the specimen will soon cover up your mistake come spring.

There are two basic types of pruning cuts: thinning and heading. Thinning removes branches where they start or are attached. They open the interior of the plant to light and air, which helps reduce pests and disease. Heading reduces the height or mass of the plant and helps to keep its natural form. It also stimulates growth of buds closest to the cut. The direction in which the closest remaining bud is pointing will determine the direction of new growth.

An additional, more drastic pruning method is known as rejuvenation. This is where specimens have been allowed to grow unchecked for years and are in need of desperate help. In such cases, the oldest branches shoudl be cut back to near ground level. However, this is usually done gradually, over two to three years, so that you're severely pruning one-half to one-third of the branches each year.

Of course, from the looks of the unpruned plants, trees and hedges I've seen in my travels, some gardeners are even going without basic pruning. I mean, when tree branches are bending over to touch the ground, why not prune so you can at least walk beneath the tree?

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