Earth Wood and Flowers Landscaping offers you the following pruning guide
to help keep your landscape looking it's best.
The best time to prune a tree or shrub depends
on how fast it is growing and when if flowers. How much to prune depends on how fast the tree is growing and how crowded the
branches are.
This can only be learned by experience. Start by noticing which branches have the
most flowers and which branches produce the best fruit. Then prune to encourage the types of branches that are most productive.
Pruning deciduous trees and shrubs in the winter when they are dormant (no leaves), will make
them grow more vigorously in the spring. Dormant pruning reduces the number of buds to share the food stored in the roots,
so each bud will grow more vigorously.
Pruning deciduous trees and shrubs in the summer will
make them grow slower the following spring. Summer pruning reduces the number of leaves to produce food stored in the roots.
There is less food for each bud so the buds grow less vigorously.
Winter pruning is recommended
for young deciduous trees and shrubs, and fruit trees to encourage them to grow more vigorously. Summer pruning is recommended
for full sized or overgrown deciduous trees and shrubs to slow down their growth.
Plants that
haven't been pruned in recent years should be partly pruned in the summer and the rest in the winter.
Late spring pruning doesn't speed up or slow down growth. It is also good time to prune fruit trees since it is obvious
which branches produce fruit and which ones don't.
This is also a good time to remove suckers
and watersprouts, the branches that grow straight up. They can be plucked off when they are still soft. They are less likely
to resprout if they are plucked off, because cutting them leaves a stub with buds.
Pruning evergreen
trees and shrubs in the winter or summer doesn't affect their rate of growth very much because they store food in the leaves
or needles, so stored food and buds are reduced about equally. Twigs and branches can be removed any time of year with the
same results.
However, shearing the tips is best done just before or after their spring flush
of new growth, so the new growth can hide the cuts. Shearing evergreens in late summer or fall isn't a good idea because it
produces brown cut ends that will show until the new growth hides them.
Pines have special requirements
for pruning because the buds are all formed at the tips of the new growth.
Cutting off the tip
of a branch will prevent the branch from putting out new growth. However, new buds will form if the tip is cut off during
the soft candle stage, when the tips of the needles are just emerging from the candles.
Pines
can only be sheared at this stage which usually occurs in May or June. Branches can be pruned back to a side branch any time
of year, but pine pitch borers are often attracted by pruning in the summer, especially if stubs are left. Winter pruning
of pine branches is the least likely to attract pine pitch borers.
Seasonal
Guide for Pruning Common Trees and Shrubs
January to March:
young or weak growing trees and shrubs, summer blooming shrubs such as roses, rose of sharon, crapemyrtle,
and certain spiraeas.
April to May: spring flowering trees and shrubs such as azaleas, camellias, daphne, forsythia, lilacs, rhododendrons,
cherries, plums, deciduous magnolias, and crabapples, after they are finished blooming. Also, needle-leaf and broad-leaf evergreens
can be pruned or sheared.
June to August: overgrown
or neglected deciduous flowering or fruit trees and shrubs, suckers and watersprouts, and faded flowers on summer blooming
plants such as roses and spiraea. Also, needle-leaf and broad-leaf evergreens can be pruned or sheared.
September to October: only necessary pruning to prevent limb
breakage during winter weather.
November to December:
perennials and shrubs that die back over winter such as hydrangeas, and Confederate Rose hibiscus.
Dead or diseased wood should be pruned out immediately in any season. Sterilize pruning tools with bleach or disinfectant
between every cut to prevent spreading the disease.
Prune in this order
1. Remove all dead or diseased wood.
2. Remove or cut back limbs that come out
of the trunk at a narrow angle. These develop weak crotches which will break under a heavy load. The smaller ones can be bent
outward and propped with a stick so they develop a wide crotch.
3. Remove a limb that comes
out of the trunk a few inches directly above or below another branch.
(Note. 2 and 3 don't all have to be done right
way if they aren't crowding other branches.)
4. Thin out watersprouts. If you remove all
of them in the winter, you will get twice as many back. On the top of the tree where the limbs are exposed to the sun, leave
one every two feet and cut off one fourth of their length.
5. Remove dangling branches or
cut them back to an outward growing branch.
6. Remove branches that are crossing or crowded.
Steps 5 and 6 may not be needed if the branches are not crowded.
