Know what you’re doing before pruning

• By CHAD HEBERT
• Advocate marketing writer
• Published: Mar 6, 2008

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The scenario usually goes like this: You see a plant, bush or tree that may be beginning to grow a little out of control. So you go into your tool shed and grab your handy pruning shears before returning to said tree.

And you basically go to town on it. You trim and cut and prune until there isn’t really much of that plant left.

Was it the right way to attack that plant? Well, that depends on what kind of plant it was.

“Anybody with a pruner or saw can prune,” WBRZ garden expert Louis Miller said.

The key to pruning, according to Miller, is knowing exactly what kind of plant you’re about to attack. Also knowing if it’s really the right time and if there’s a real reason to prune are important.

Ruth Harb of Harb’s Oasis agrees. She emphasized that pruning at the right time of year is vital.

Harb also noted the importance of using a pair of good, sharp pruning shears. Making a clean, sharp cut helps prevent a plant from becoming diseased or infested.

Miller said pruning can be done to simply contain the size of something. In the case of flowering plants such as roses, pruning can be done for new blooms to grow. Or for others, pruning can be done to help with fruit production.

Timing is also essential, Miller said. You don’t necessarily have to prune everything at the same time. However, in cases of dead or diseased plants, all rules should be thrown out the window, and they should be removed immediately.

Miller emphasized how much it pays to be educated on the specific pruning techniques of certain plants. Because if you prune a plant incorrectly once, you may never be able to fix it… ever.

An example of a tree commonly pruned the wrong way is the crape myrtle.

“They can be pruned in the fall or early spring,” Harb said, once again emphasizing timing when pruning a plant or tree or shrub.

However, she explained, people tend to think they need to cut crape myrtles way back, which is not necessarily true. Harb advised gardeners instead choose the best looking five or six trunks and prune the smaller branches off them.