Pruning 101: A Backyard Guide
3 pros!
When it comes to maintaining your yard and landscape, pruning is an essential task.
Pruning is important for a number of reasons, including removing dead plant material, controlling plant size, reshaping form, removing disease, encouraging fruit and flowers, redirecting the way a plant is growing, removing overgrown plantings away from structures and ensuring beautiful landscaping overall.
What's the best season for pruning?
For those who live in a climate with four distinct seasons, most pruning is done during late winter/early spring, or after flowering. Pruning at the wrong time of year can’t do much harm to the plant other than cause less or no blooms. No need to worry though - the blooms will return next year. It is also important to not over-prune, so remove no more than a third of healthy plant tissue. Over-pruning some types of plantings can cause stress and death, so be sure to research how to prune specific plantings in your backyard and garden.
What are the right tools for pruning?
When it comes to pruning shrubs and smaller plantings, I recommend having a hand pruner, hedge shearers and lopping shears for thicker branches. For trees, you will need lopping shears and a tree saw with a pole pruner for high-up, hard to reach places.
Keeping your tool's blades sharp and well maintained will not only make your job easier, but will help to make clean cuts so the plant can heal properly. It is important to disinfect your tools between pruning plants to prevent the spread of disease. A 25% bleach/75% water solution works well. Simply soak the cutting portion of your tool for five minutes then rinse with clean water and dry.
Be sure to have the right tools to properly prune your trees, shrubs and plants. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Caughey/Tilly's Nest)
When is the best time to prune?
Most pruning is done when plants are dormant or just awakening from their winter slumber. This means late winter or early spring. Flowering shrubs are most often pruned after they bloom to ensure that the new blooms are not mistakenly pruned off. Fruit trees are pruned for greater yields in early spring. Evergreens are typically pruned when dormant - this is usually in the winter. A word of caution when pruning evergreens: be sure to not over-prune. Often branches will not grow back. If there are too many pruning mistakes, some people correct this by turning the evergreens into a hedge. Other times, the entire plant might need to be removed and replaced.
Properly time your pruning to get the most blossoms and get rid of dead material. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Caughey/Tilly's Nest)
Old wood vs. new wood
When it comes to flowering plants, like hydrangeas, it is important to determine if they bloom on old or new wood. If a plant blooms on old wood, it means that blooms are set on last year’s branches. If the plant blooms on new wood, then blooms form from new branches during the current year. This means that for those plants that bloom on old wood, you need to be cautious with pruning. You might also happen to notice that after a harsh winter or late freeze/frost, some hydrangeas that should bloom on old wood do not. That’s because their buds were damaged or killed.
Be aware of what's old wood and what's new wood to avoid pruning the coming year's blossoms. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Caughey/Tilly's Nest)
What and where to prune
If you wish to prevent a branch from growing longer, cut the bud at the tip to remove the terminal bud. The buds on the side of the branch are lateral buds. These cause the plant to grow bulky or outward. If you remove these, then you can control the density of the plant. If you are trimming back a dead or diseased branch, then you need to cut just before you reach the latent bud, or bud that appears to be “hiding” beneath the surface. Anytime you make a cut it should be about a quarter of an inch above a lateral bud at a 45-degree angle.
Plants such as this perennial, Russian sage, benefit from an annual spring pruning. Once this perennial begins to leaf out, you will notice that the top portion of the branches die back. For this perennial, simply prune down to right above the active growth.
Some plants require yearly pruning after they begin to leaf out, such as the Russian sage. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Caughey/Tilly's Nest)
How to prune hydrangeas
In this case, this nikko blue hydrangea (hydrangea macrophylla ‘Nikko Blue’) that blooms on old wood is in need of pruning. Old dead branches need to be removed from the center of the plant. You can also see darker branches that once were filled with buds ready to bloom this year. Unfortunately, a late heavy frost killed these blooms and branches. Both the old dead branches and the new damaged ones need to be removed. Sadly, this plant will have little to no blooms, as this new green growth that you see in the photos is this year’s new wood.
Old dead branches are unsightly and restrict growth on hydrangeas. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Caughey/Tilly's Nest)
Pruned hydrangeas encourage additional growth for large, healthy plants. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Caughey/Tilly's Nest)
This hydrangea paniculata ‘Little Quick Fire’ will benefit from a heading, where I have trimmed off the dead portions of the terminal buds to encourage a thicker plant. This variety blooms on new wood, so no matter the pruning, it is guaranteed to bloom.
Prune off the dead portions of plants to encourage thicker growth. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Caughey/Tilly's Nest)
This oakleaf hydrangea, hydrangea quercifolia "Pee Wee," suffered winter damage. Here the dead tissue was removed. Oakleaf hydrangeas bloom on old wood.
This oakleaf hydrangea was damaged over the winter and needed to be pruned. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Caughey/Tilly's Nest)
Pruning foundation plantings
These foundation plantings had become overgrown. A simple straight pruning with the hand shears helps to encourage airflow, access, and prevent collecting moisture and rot of the building. When pruning, consider access to the area for water spigots, electric meters and so forth. This type of pruning does not consider shapes or growth. It is done pragmatically.
Some plants can use a pruning to keep a safe distance from the house. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Caughey/Tilly's Nest)
After foundation pruning, there is plenty of space for the plant to grow. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Caughey/Tilly's Nest)
Pruning out disease
This tree suffers from galls. These galls are most likely caused by insects. The best treatment is to cut out any diseased portions. A pole lopper works best for higher places and a simple hand pruner or lopper will address lower, thicker branches. To prune out galls, make a cut just before the gall.
Here a cedar tree suffers from cedar apple rust galls. These galls are filled with fungal spores that can harm nearby apple trees. Galls within reach, like this one, can be pruned out and destroyed or the tree can be treated with fungicide. If this were occurring near an apple orchard, the entire tree would most likely be removed.
Look for signs of disease on trees, shrubs and plants. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Caughey/Tilly's Nest)
Pruning out disease is the easiest way to keep your plants healthy. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Caughey/Tilly's Nest)
When in doubt, you don’t have to prune every year. This is especially the case with new plantings or when you move to a new location. It is okay to wait a year. Waiting is one of the best ways to learn about a plant’s blooming habits and patterns.
For more information about pruning shrubs, vines, trees, or other particular types of plants, reach out to your local Master Gardeners, garden center or your landscape professional. Not only will they help you to grow your knowledge base, they’ll be able to provide you with more resources to empower you to tackle the task of pruning.
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