Shaping Up for Spring: Pruning

This is definitely the time of year when we start scrutinizing our gardens, and pruning is one way to get them in shape for the coming growing season.

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A friend of mine is snipper-happy these days. She’s into pruning. “I’m really seeing what a difference it makes,” she said. “Just stand back and decide how you want it to grow.” Though opinions differ about when to prune, our general guidelines are—

  • Early spring: most plants are dormant and their energy levels for defense and recovery are highest. It’s a good time to correct any damage to limbs that winter caused. Beware that when a plant is putting on new shoots, pruning can shock a plant enough to cause dieback.
  • Early summer: prune spring blooming shrubs such as lilacs so they’ll have time to develop new buds for the following spring. Also trim suckers now.

Why prune?

  • to encourage and direct new growth
  • to fix existing and prevent future growth problems

Tools

  • pruning shears come with anvil cut or bypass cut blades. Either type works well for small diameter branches.
  • loppers are long handled shears that give more leverage and are capable of cutting somewhat larger branches.
  • pruning saws are used for the bigger branches.

My friend has a little apricot tree and says she’s shaping it while it’s still small. Her rules of thumb are simple: “Prune any limbs that are touching, growing down or at any weird angles. If you have a limb that’s bent, it probably won’t straighten unless it’s small and you brace it or something.

This is definitely the time of year when we start scrutinizing our gardens, and pruning is one way to get them in shape for the coming growing season.