THE WONDERFUL WARM weather, although a great treat for us, is not necessarily a good thing for your plants.
Now would normally be the time to prune your trees and bushes. But all pruning is stimulation, and that’s the last thing I want your plants to experience in early January.
So let’s wait two more weeks to prune things while we go back over “pruning.”
Here are the seven reasons to prune:
1. To remove dead, dying or injured members. Any time of the year, one should prune away all deadwood on a plant and any plant part that is diseased, discolored, torn, tattered, split, cracked or that rubs against another piece of the plant. This material harbors disease, is fertile habitat for insects and negatively impacts the aesthetics of the plant. Cut away as well those branches or stems that cross over or through the plant, as well as those pieces that display errant growth.
2. To check growth where space is limited. This is most likely the No. 1 reason you prune. We prune plants to keep them in proper perspective to their location. Remember, picking the right plant for the right spot first can be your most effective way to reduce intensive and time-consuming pruning.
3. To thin plants. Many of your plants naturally grow thick or become a tangled mass because of previous prunings. We thin plants that have been neglected, overgrown or have thickened because of heading cuts (to be discussed next week). Thinning is vital because it allows for air movement throughout the interior, as well as sunlight penetration. Air movement and sunlight greatly reduce pestilence as well as keep interior nodes (area where a new growth can emerge) viable.
4. To encourage root growth. Here, let’s put down the pruners and pick up the shovel since all pruning is stimulating and root pruning is no exception. Many times, old fruit trees, as well as various vines, like wisteria, fail to flower or fruit because of an inadequate root system. By thrusting a shovel deep into the ground, say 12 to 18 inches deep at the drip line, we sever the feeder roots, stimulating a whole new set of branches to grow. Next, when one transplant or buys bare-root items, you should prune the roots at a node to encourage new root production. Finally, we root prune by pruning severely the top growth of new plants, like edible fruit or clematis, in order for the rest of the root system to develop in proportion to the plant’s growth.
5. To alter intelligently the form of the plant. This is my favorite reason. All of your pruning should have this as a core concept, because only when each and every pruning cut you make is for an exact, predetermined reason are you pruning rather than committing plant butchery. By determining the shape and direction of your plant, you become the master of your plant, not the other way around. Topiary, bonsai and hedges would be quintessential examples of this form, but for extra credit, go rent the best plant-pruning movie ever made, “Edward Scissorhands.”
6. To encourage fruit/flower/foliage production. This should be a prime driving force behind your shears. Roses, pussy willows, apples, grapes, raspberries, photinia, coral bark maples and red twig dogwoods are great examples of this type of pruning. Basically, heading cuts are required.
Next week, we’ll cut deep into this subject, for now, just realize proper pruning doubles or triples flowers, fruit and colored leaves.
7. To rehabilitate or rejuvenate plants. I like to tell clients that this form of pruning is an effort to stave off the excavator or the chain saw. We rejuvenate plants that have been neglected, are way too large, spindly, ragged or just plain ugly. By definition, this type of pruning removes 60 percent or more of the actual mass of the plant and results in a lush, compact, full-flowering specimen. Rhoadies, lilies, dogwoods, roses, vines, old hedges, spireas, potentillas and forsythias are prime candidates for reclamation techniques.
So, this week, look at your plants, think about the reasons they need pruning, sharpen your equipment, buy a new set of Felco pruners and go do some dead-wooding. This will be in preparation for next week’s column on the three tenets of pruning and the two types of cuts.
But for now … stay well all!
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Andrew May is a freelance writer and ornamental horticulturist who dreams of having Clallam and Jefferson counties nationally recognized as “Flower Peninsula USA.” Send him questions c/o Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362, or email news@peninsuladailynews.com (subject line: Andrew May).
