www.gardeningforlove.com - Pruning - all you need to know

We have already had many questions about PRUNING, and most folks seem a bit worried about the whole thing. Don't worry, it's just like your hair - it will grow back! So, relax and follow our simple steps below.

A few pruning thoughts to keep in mind:

Be sure that your nippers are clean! We use the little alcohol pads from the drug store to clean our nippers before we start cutting. No need to be a typhoid Mary!
With the heavy dew and evening rains that some areas have, take note: don't move amoung your plants when they are very wet. It is easy to transfer disease from one plant to another when the leaves are wet.
When you make a cut, then several shoots will emerge there. So pruning causes branching. Think King of the Mountain. When you make a cut, the multiple shoots that emerge there will all compete to be the tallest (King of the Mountain,) so pruning encourages growth. Fruit trees that are trained and heavily pruned have higher yields than those that don't.
Don't move from a plant that is diseased to other plants without cleaning your nippers or loppers. We use the little disposable alcohol pads -very handy.
Follow this advice from Elizabeth Lawrence: "Hold the blade next to the part that is being left, and make a close, clean cut parallel to the stem or branch, leaving no stub, split, or torn bark....Let the cut slope away from the bud, or cut above a twig that turns outward." -Beautiful All Season

When to prune:

For roses, late February, or early March is a good time. Other shrubs that take to pruning in late winter are Nandina, Mahonia, Holly, and Boxwood. On Mahonia and Nandina, prune every year, cutting off one or two branches at ground level, some at 1/3 height and some at 2/3 height. Leave some branches at the current height. Over time you will get a well filled shrub without naked ankles. When your Camellias are done blooming, you can prune them as well.
For shrubs and trees that bloom in spring and early summer, wait till they bloom, and then prune while blooming (nice cut branches for the house) or right after blooming. This is the way to be sure that you don't cut off all your forming buds (which may not be visible to you now) and loose all chance of bloom this year. An example of this are Mophead Hydrangeas. Do cut off any dead blooms from last year (waited long enough, didn't you honey?) but don't cut any extra now. At the end of each little branch tip is the possibility of a bloom. If you cut it off, it may not bloom at all. In this group would be Pyracantha, spring blooming Spirea, Wigela, Azaleas, Rohododendrons, Quince, Forsythia, Jasmine, Jessamine, Mophead Hydrangea, Spirea, Abelia, Magnolia, and Cherry Laurel.
For summer bloomers that bloom on new wood, cut back severely now. This would include Butterfly Bush (Buddelia), Pee Gee Hydrangea (H. Paniculata Grandiflora), and summer-blooming Clematis.

What to prune:

First off, we are not big fans of dramatic pruning. If your shrub is in a place that it regularly outgrows, then you have bad placement and you have ignored the ultimate natural size of your shrub. It is soooo sad to drive by houses where the lawn boys have been given a free reign to use those electric jaw thingies on a long pole and each shrub is a little rounded ball with sad, exposed ankles. And please, no Crepe Myrtle murder. Crepe Myrtles don't need pruning, and if you do not leave them alone, you will miss some of the best features they have to offer - beautiful peeling bark and thick, twisty trunks.
Second, stick with the 3 D's for starters, then see what's left. Remove anything that is

DEAD - you can tell - the twig in question has no leaves, is dry and grey and when you cut a bit off, it's hollow, not nice and greenish

DISEASED- all blighty and spotty or mildewey, ick!

DAMAGED - broken, smashed, etc.

How to prune:

Use the sharpest garden nippers or loppers you have. If you live in the Atlanta area, you can get them sharpened at our favorite place - check Sources.
Make the cut at an angle, so that the rain will sheet off of the twig or branch, and not pool there and grow bad diseases. Make your cut just above an outward facing bud. The little nubbiney things on the branch will be the buds. They alternate sides usually. Just cut right above one that is on the outside. The top sprouting twig will now be growing out, so it will not be all tangly with the other shoots on other twigs.
For hedges and dense evergreens like Holly, Ligustrum, Boxwoods - think pyramid. You want the top of the shrub to be narrower than the bottom of the shrub. This is so that the sun gets to the bottom branches. If you prune the shrub into a round ball, all fat in the middle like so many landscape minions do, you will have those unsightly ankles that we so detest.

A great guide is the Dorling-Kindersley Pruning and Training Book (1999) - it's got great photos and sketches just like the DK travel guides.

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Special Rose Pruning advice: summer pruning

Your first flush of rose bloom has passed now and it's time to clean up your roses a bit. If you are trying to encourage another round of bloom, or in the case of roses like Knockouts, continuing bloom, pruning is essential. Do read the general pruning instructions to the right. Then follow these guidelines to have lovely, bloomin' roses!

The twigs or branches of roses are called canes. Just like other shrubs, cut out Diseased, Dead, andDamaged bits. If you are feeling really motivated, cut off the leaves that have yellow bits or blad spots or white powdery mildew (in sort, any leaves that are not perfect) and discard them (don't let them lay around under the roses and spread mildew.)

Cut off any suckers that you see - they will come from near or below ground level and will be below the graft (big knobby lump) on a grafted rose. The suckers will usually have different looking leaves from the rest of the rose.

Next, cut off each dead bloom. Cut back to the first set of three or five leaves, or even further if you are working to shape the rose, just be sure that your cut is angled outward, and is just above a set of leaves.

Next, fertilize to encourage the most bloom. Municipal gardens and botanical gardens use both liquid fertilzer when they water, and a time release fertilizer in the soil. You can use 1/2 strenth liquid fertilizer ( like Miracle Grow, Peters, or fish emusion, mixed with water) every week if you are super-motivated. Be sure you are not just feeding top growth by also giving your roses a good top dressing of manure organic fertilizer. You can add a teaspoon of time release fertilizer and that will cover the entire growing season - scratch it lightly into the soil around the driplineof the rose. As you can see from the three suggestions above, there is no wrong way to fertilize, just follow the directions on the package and don't exceed the recommendations.

CLEMATIS PRUNING

We will be the first to admit, the subject of pruning Clematis is confusing! You don't have to know a lot, all you need to know is what plant you have. Using a good garden dictionary or encyclopedia, look up the Clematis you have to see which of three groups it belongs to - they are pruned differently, because some bloom on newly formed growth and some bloom on old wood. Here are some general guidelines:

Group 1 includes the early flowering Clematis, like the evergreen 'Armandii', which has fragrant white blooms in early spring. It blooms on wood formed last year. Prune Group 1 plants after flowering, cutting out dead and damaged growth, and cutting back to fit your space. This encouages new growth that will form blooming stems next sprng.

Group 2 includes early to mid-season bloomers like 'Nelly Moser' and 'Henryi' and these produce blooms on new growth. Simply cut these back to the most prominent buds in very early spring. Removing the flowers after they fade can encourage a second flush of bloom later in summer.

Group 3, most blooming in late summer and fall, is the easiest to prune - just cut it back to one foot of the ground (usually two buds on each stem) in very early spring. This group includes the cultivar C. maximowicziana,better known in the south as Sweet Autumn Clematis.

shown above: two views of Sweet Autumn Clematis- the easiest of all Clematis to grow, with a heavenly fragrance and fall blooms.

YEAR - ROUND PRUNING -

You may have heard older folks talk about "pinching back." We remember a lot of pinching back going on with Geraniums around here. A gardener should be pinching back every day that they are in the garden. This is the true source of the expression "GREEN THUMB," because you will not only have green fingers, but green fingernails, too.

As you walk past the Rosemary, for instance, pinch off the soft tips onbranches in order to make them sprout out multiple branches. This will keep you from having to prune into the old wood later, which in Rosemary can be fatal. Pinch off rose blooms after they whither or better yet, cut them off back to the next leaf junction. Remember the first principle of pruning is that it encourages branching - justmore of a good thing.

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