Look at this little beauty. This is one of my favorite bushes. Fortunately for me, it is a dwarf and grows very slowly and hasn’t needed pruning yet.
Most shrubs and trees need pruning periodically. Pruning your shrubs, bushes, and trees will help maintain their structure and health as well as enhance their natural beauty. Keeping your plants well maintained also increases their value.
You know it’s time to prune when your trees have, dead wood, or hanging branches. Also, trees that have weak branch unions or crossing/ rubbing branches and overly thick growth should also be pruned.
Checking your shrubs and bushes for pruning needs annually is very important to maintain their natural shape and beauty as well as their general health. People tend to decide to prune shrubs or bushes when they’ve gotten overgrown. This is never a good idea. The branches tend to get gangly and weak and the pruning sometimes needs to be drastic or the plants may be so overgrown that it’s time to remove and replace them with new younger plants.
Trees and bushes that flower before the end of June should be pruned immediately after flowering. Flower buds develop during the previous season’s growth, thus, the flowers for the current year’s bloom developed last year and overwintered in the bud.
Other trees and bushes, those which flower after the end of June, should be pruned in winter or early spring before new growth starts. These plants develop flower buds during the spring of the flowering season.
Certain plants may be lightly pruned both before and after flowering. This often increases flower and fruit production, and several may produce a second bloom during the year. Non-flowering bushes can be pruned as needed during the landscape season and trees can also be pruned during the winter.
Keeping your shrubs, bushes, and trees pruned is a worthwhile investment that will maintain and improve their well being. If you’re not already doing this, you should walk your property and take a look at your plants. I’ll bet they could use some pruning
