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TIME FOR PRUNING

© Michael Campbell

As February beckons and the weather may still be miserable, there are some jobs in the must be tackled in the next few weeks. Spring pruning is one of them, because some plants react to daylight and not weather conditions.

WHERE DO YOU CUT.

One of the most bewildering questions for the gardening beginner is, when do you prune, and where do you cut? A pruner needs to know something of the basic parts of a plant: roots, stem or trunk, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit. Fortunately the parts of all plants are the same, even though they don't always look alike from plant to plant.

ROOTS:

In the case of roots, nature provides a not uncommon example of a single part functioning in more than one way. Roots serve two major purposes: They anchor the plant and they absorb water and the necessary minerals and nutrients.

STEM OR TRUNK:

You can think of this part of the plant as a set of pipes wrapped in bark, one inside the other. The inner pipe carries water and minerals from the roots to the branches, leaves, flowers and fruit. The outer pipe carries food down from the leaves to the rest of the plant. Another function of the stem or trunk is to support the branches, leaves flowers and fruit.

BRANCHES:

As the trunk supports the branches, they in turn serve as a framework for the leaves. Branches are named according to their position on the trunk. The leader is the central highest one, seemingly a continuation of the trunk itself. Scaffold branches are the main side branches. Lateral branches emerge from the scaffold limbs. Spurs are the short twigs or branches that bear fruit. Suckers are the leafy shoots that usually sprout from a tree's crown or roots. Because they rob the plant of water and nutrients, they should be removed.

WHEN DO YOU PRUNE:

Is the best time winter or spring? Before flowering or after? To answer this question you need to know: (1) when does the plant flower, (2) on which of the three kinds of growth does it flower: shoots from the current season, wood from the previous year, or wood two or more years old.

SHOOTS FROM THE CURRENT SEASON:

There is good reason for pruning all plants that bloom on new shoots before they bloom. Consider roses as an example. Most roses flower on shoots that grow during the current year. Pruning them in the spring before they begin to bloom will encourage new growth and more roses .

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