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About Hardy Shrub Roses
About Heathers
About Flowering Crabs
wildlife habitat
Annuals Biennials Perennials
Culinary Herbs
The Healing Herbs
The Fragrant Herbs
Shakespearean and Bible Herbs
Do you Really Need A Tiller
Insect Attack
Flowers for Cutting
Pruning Pointers
Houseplants Clean the Air
Recipes Fresh from the Garden
The Gold Plated Gardener
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| Pruning Pointers |
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Pruning is a topic that can fill a book, and has - many books! In this short column, all I will attempt to do is to answer some of the questions I am most often asked, about how to prune what, when. Roses. Hybrid Tea roses must be cut back to 8” in late fall and given winter protection. Even then, with the best protection, they are unlikely to survive a central Maine winter. Hardy shrub roses may benefit from a light pruning in late fall also, depending on how protected your microclimate is. Experiment. (A few, like Therese Bugnet, bloom on old wood and should not be pruned). In spring, cut back any winter-killed tips, and cut dead canes back to the base. On climbers and ramblers, cut a few of the oldest canes back to the base so that what remains is young and vigorous. Rugosas need no pruning, but should be allowed to follow their own branching structure; if they become too tall, they can be whacked back hard. On any grafted rose, cut back and remove any “bull canes”, the vigorous straight canes that sometimes grow up from the rootstock. These are not growth of the cultivar you bought; they will only sap the strength from your blooming rose. Ornamental shrubs. Many ornamentals benefit from a pruning in early spring. Your purpose in pruning is to remove dead branches, maintain desired shape or height, and improve vigor. An older shrub will be more vigorous, and look better, if some of the dense older growth in the center is cut back to the base. Old, tired lilacs will get a new lease on life if 1/3 of its oldest wood is cut back to the ground each year over a three-year period. And lilacs whose bloom is sparse may be putting their energy into suckering To increase bloom, remove all suckers from around the shrub. Overgrown junipers can be tidied up by cutting back the longest branches right to the center of the plant. Flowering shrubs. Spring-blooming shrubs such as azaleas, rhododendrons and lilacs form next year’s buds on this summer’s growth. If such shrubs are to be pruned at all, it should always be immediately after the blooms have faded--otherwise, you are removing next year’s flowers. Fall bloomers can be pruned safely in the early spring. Spirea take well to pruning, especially if last year’s dead flower heads are cut back severely. Blueberries. Highbush blueberries need no pruning for the first six years or so, except to remove dead wood. After they have become established and begun to bear, remove any dead growth and thin out a few of the older canes each winter. Your blueberry bushes should have 6-8 active canes (main branches) at any time for best production. Raspberries. Raspberries bear fruit on two-year-old canes which do not bear again; in other words, a cane grows one year, bears the second year, and then quits production. Productive canes should be removed at ground level in the fall, once they have finished bearing. Late fall or early spring is a good time to give them an ample dressing of compost, to suppress weeds and supply nutrition. Evergreens, hedges and fruit trees. Each species of evergreen, and hedges in general, have their own very particular methods for pruning or trimming, too detailed to go into here. Just two brief notes to address a couple of disasters I frequently see in the making. One concerns junipers, which can quickly become overgrown: trimming the tips will induce branching and eventually result in a round plant. To preserve the natural structure of an overgrown juniper, select a few of the longest branches, trace them back to the main stem, and remove them. This will reduce the overall size of the plant without destroying its structural appeal. The other is the mugho pine: once it is allowed to become overgrown, it cannot be sheared or pruned--only excavated. Yet keeping it in check is simple. In May when it is “candling” (producing new growth that resembles yellow-green candles), the candles should be broken--not cut--in half. This easy and timely intervention will reduce the height of the new growth, thus keeping the overall plant’s size in control. Fruit trees are a subject in themselves. Check out a book from your local library, or call your County Extension Service for one of the many fine pamphlets they publish on pruning. |
| Palmyra | ME | 04965-4033 |
 shepherdsgdn@hotmail.com |
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| Visitors: 03080 |