Prune with top-quality pruning shears, loppers, and a saw. Sharp blades and sturdy handles can make pruning a breeze. Dull blades, which are rusty and sticking, make projects harder than they need to be. They can also cause wood to be crushed or torn, which is damaging to the plant. Look for hard, durable blades capable of being resharpened and a sturdy, smoothly operating nut holding the blades together. Hand shears should also have a safety latch to keep the blades closed when not in use.
- Candle-prune pines to control their size or make them branch more thickly. Candle-pruning (also called candling) refers to manipulating the candle-shape new shoots that arise in spring. When the candle is fully elongated but before the needles enlarge, use your pruning shears to cut off a little, half, or most of the soft candle, depending on how much you want to limit size. The cut should slant at an angle instead of slicing straight across the candle. Come the following spring, clusters of new side branches will appear. Continue candling each year for more dramatic results.
- Candling is especially handy for keeping mugo pines small enough for use near the house or in a mixed border. It also can help lanky, open-branched pines fill in to form a more solid and substantial cone.
©2006 Publications International, Ltd.
Hand shears are useful for smaller limbs.
Use pruning loppers or a pruning saw to cut the oldest stems off at the ground, ideally in early spring before the shrubs break dormancy. This timing encourages quick renewal, but a few spring flowers will be sacrificed on early bloomers. If you can't bear that thought, wait to prune until after flowering. As spring and summer progress, new branches will take the place of the old branches. If pruned every year, the shrub will be continually rejuvenated, remaining healthy and beautiful.
Rejuvenate tired, overgrown, or weak shrubs by cutting them to the ground. Although this may sound like giving up, just the opposite is true. It can be the start of a whole new shrub. This technique works well with easy-growing shrubs such as lilacs, viburnums, and butterfly bushes but is generally not effective with evergreen shrubs (except boxwoods). The idea is similar to renewal-pruning, only more radical. It should be done in early spring before leaves or flowers emerge.
Shrubs with strong root systems will resprout with a fountain of new stems. So that they don't crowd each other, you should thin excessively thick clumps to allow the strongest to continue growing and form the foundation for the new shrub.
Shrubs with weak root systems or disease problems may not resprout. If there are no signs of life a month or two after cutting the shrub back, start looking for a replacement plant.
- Prune to the outside of a tree's branch collar for fast healing and good tree health. The branch collar is the swelling located at the base of the branch, where it arises from another limb or the trunk. The branch collar is like a hospital isolation ward; it houses protective chemicals that help keep diseases from invading the parent limb. When removing a branch for any reason, leaving that branch collar in place shuts out any passing pathogens.
- Slant pruning cuts away from the bud to encourage water to run off. This helps keep the bud healthy so it can grow and prosper.
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