Why prune?

Spring time is coming and soon enough everything will be coming to life. Pruning is one of the few aspects of gardening where nature doesn't lend a helping hand, and I suppose that is natural. The jungle landscapes have survived for thousands of years without human interference. What every gardener knows is that permanent plants, when left to their own devices, become overgrown, untidy messes that produce less flower and fruit. Pruning is an essential part of promoting growth and is useful when you are building up a framework of branches on a new shrub or tree but works against the gardener who is trying to curtail the size of plant.

Without knowledge of the correct time to prune a person might cut off the very branches that would justify a plants existence because it has not yet produced flowers.

Very old branches will produce fewer flowers. With a fruiting tree, fewer flowers means less fruit. Removing any branches that grow towards the center and shaping the tree to allow maximum light to the crop will result in better quality fruit.

For plants with attractively colored bark, annual pruning will ensure a plentiful supply of brightly colored stems. With willows this applies only to the young bark, while the bark of birch trees improves as the trees age. The dogwoods are exceptional for their winter bark color, which is brightest in young stems.

Image borrowed from "thebigplantnursey.com"

The shape of a plant is important. It only takes a single branch growing in the wrong direction to spoil the otherwise elegantly domed head of a mature tree. A compact shrub is so much more attractive than an untidy straggly, overgrown plant.

It is crucial that diseased branches, such as those infected with canker, are removed before the spores spread to other parts of the tree or neighboring plants. It is important to cut well below the visual damage, then collect and burn the prunings.

Some large, overgrown shrubs such as rhododendrons and escallonia may be rejuvenated by a severe pruning, leaving only the stumps of the thickest branches. With watering and feeding, new shoots will push out from the remaining parts of the shrub and the plant will have a new lease on life.

Cercis with center pruned neatly. Image borrowed from "gardenia.net"

Pruning less drastically - i.e. removing only a few branches at a time - allows the plant to produce new, sturdy growths that will in time make healthy replacement branches. A apple tree for example that has been left to its own devices should have remedial pruning done spread over three years.

The three D's of pruning are dead, diseased, and damaged branches which should always be removed first. These three topics we will elaborate on in future blogs and as well as different pruning styles for evergreens or deciduous.

This spring Kephas Landscaping Inc will be taking time to present blogs with information related to arboricultural or landscape care and design. Kephas Landscaping is a landscaping, tree care, and snow removal company located in Calgary, Alberta.