Spring Pruning Guide

Prune With a Goal

Pruning is a way of altering a plant's natural growth pattern with a specific purpose in mind. For fruit tree grower, the goal is maximizing fruit production. In your landscape, you might want to limit a plant's size, promote flowering or fruiting, create a more pleasing shape, rejuvenate an overgrown plant, or remove branches to allow more sunlight to pass through. How you prune will depend on the type of plant and what you are trying to accomplish.

Many gardeners are reluctant to prune for fear of the damage that they may cause. But pruning properly will help it be more pleasing to the eye in the landscape and improve its vitality. Do your homework so you understand the best method for each type of plant. Best rule of thumb: Have a reason for every cut you make. Some plants, such as forsythia, are so vigorous you can cut them down to the ground and they'll regrow. But those are the exception to the rule.

When to Prune

Many woody plants are best pruned in late winter or early spring, just as buds are beginning to swell. The exceptions include spring-blooming shrubs, such as lilac and most rhododendron. These plants set their flower buds during the previous growing season, so pruning them now will remove the flower buds. Instead, prune immediately after flowering, so the plant can produce new growth -- and new buds -- for next year's bloom.

Some plants profit from another slight pruning in midsummer. Fruit growers often prune the young, upright shoots on apple trees, for example, because these branches don't produce fruit. These growers want to limit vigorous vegetative growth and redirect the plant's energy to the fruiting wood. You might want to prune wayward branches on a shrub to keep the plant tidy.

In most cases, it's a bad idea to prune in autumn because this encourages new growth that may be damaged by the winter cold. Fall pruning can also interfere with a plant's hardening off process.

Follow the Natural Shape

In general, it's best to prune in a way that follows a plant's natural shape. So, instead of cutting the tips from all the branches on a shrub to make a perfect globe, it's better to cut some branches further back and allow some to remain as the way they are. As the plant leafs out you can reconsider and make further cuts to give it the form you prefer.

Have you ever sheared your formal hedge, like privet, only to find you are left with nothing more than bare branches? These hedges form most of their foliage on the branch tips, leaving the interior branches leafless. To reduce the size of the shrub or stimulate a more natural shape, you must do it over several seasons, cutting some branches back to the main trunk to allow light to penetrate indside and encourage more natural growth.

Quick Guidelines:

• All plants benefit from having diseased, broken, damaged, and rubbing branches removed, and this can be done at any time of year.
  
  
• Prune back to another branch or outward-facing bud.
  
  
• When cutting large branches, cut halfway through from the top, then make a cut underneath, then finish the cut from the top. The bottom cut prevents the bark from stripping when the branch falls.
  
  
• A rule of thumb is to remove no more than one third of the growth in any one season. If you need to remove more, wait a year to avoid stressing the plant too much.
  
  
• Use sharp tools for clean cuts.
  
  
• Avoid sealers unless there is a specific reason to use one, such as to minimize attack by borers. In general, pruning cuts heal faster when left unsealed.
  
  
• Walk around the plant as you prune, to keep the plant reasonably symmetrical.
  
  
• Stay safe. If you're not up to a big pruning job, hire a professional.
  
  

I love driving around the neighborhoods in my hometown and seeing all the spring time pruning going on, a signal that warm weather is just around the corner. Take your cue from those with a head start and get out, enjoy the new spring air and sunshine and do your pruning on a sunny, early spring day!