Spring Rain+Sunshine=Shrubs That Need Pruning

With the crazy spring season we’ve had of 90 degree days turning to rain and temperatures hovering near freezing the next day has thrown the planting of annuals behind our usual schedule, but now that Memorial Day has passed, the annuals should be planted and tropical plants are safely moved outdoors.

Spring rain and sun make shrubs grow quickly and before you know it they need pruning.

Resident Shirley Barnes has a beautifully landscaped yard that she works hard to keep looking nice and has won the Garden of the Month award several times for her efforts. But sometimes she asks me to come in and prune the Boxwood shrubs in the front yard. So I’m taking this opportunity to give a lesson in pruning.

For soft branched shrubs, like Boxwood, I use a hand hedge trimmer to prune, which gives me more control. Shrubs that have more of a woody branch can use the power hedge trimmer. I always try to lay a tarp around the base of the shrub to catch all the tiny leaves. It makes clean up go a lot quicker.

Look at the shrub as if it were the face of an analog clock. If the shrub is under three feet tall, start at the top of the shrub at the 12 o’clock position and trim working downward. If the shrub is taller than three feet, start at the base and work upward. Move to the 1 o’clock position and trim from top to bottom, then to the 2 o’clock position and trim top to bottom working your way around the shrub until you reach the first cut.

The amount to remove is all the new growth if you are looking to maintain the original shape and size, less if you want the shrub to grow larger and more if you want to reduce the original size.

Next, thinning cuts. This is the most important part that most everyone misses. Thinning a shrub allows both sunlight and air circulation down inside the shrub. Good air circulation minimizes fungus issues that are encouraged by lack of sunlight, moisture, high humidity and no air movement.

Sunlight will allow foliage to grow deeper into the shrub. If your intention is to reduce the over all size because it’s become over grown, this method will allow that to happen over a period of a few years. Cutting a shrub to bare wood will most likely kill it. Radical reduction is best done slowly over several growing seasons. There are some exceptions. For example the Japanese Spirea, "Gold Mound," "Limemound," "Little Princess," etc. can tolerate removing all branches to the crown yearly (on more established shrubs)  so that every year you have all new growth and no dead twiggy areas.

To make thinning cuts, switch to a hand pruner, again starting at the 12 o’clock position at the top, go down deep into the shrub below the level of the foliage, find where a wood stem joins another stem, grab all the connecting branches of that stem and hold them in your hand. While holding this branch, look at the overall surrounding area to determine if cutting this branch creates a small hole or a large hole.

To determine the size of the hole, if the Boxwood is approximately two feet tall and wide and the hole is the size of your fist, that is a good size hole, go ahead and cut. If the hole is larger than your fist, don’t cut that deep, pull your hand out a little and grab a smaller bunch of stems and check again. If it is now about the size of your fist, make the cut with your sharp hand pruner. Or, forget that stem and select another one that is not as full.

After the cut, brush your hand over the area and the surrounding stems will move and spread out into the area that was just cut. Do this several more times in the 12 o’clock position then move to the one o’clock position and select a stem to cut, then continuing around the entire shrub, one clock position after another. The size of the shrub determines the size of the holes created. A five-foot shrub can allow larger holes to be created. When finished, you should be able to see light through the shrub.

If you are feeling timid about how much to remove inside, then prune just a few branches every time you prune and shape the outside of the shrub.

Too often I see heavily pruned shrubs, and Burning Bush is one of them, that if looked at closely, the base branching has only a dozen or so branches where the outer perimeter has a thousand tiny stems from constant cutting. These shrubs are in desperate need of thinning.

One last and very important thing to remember is when you use hand pruners, wear heavy gloves and always know where the other hand is (without the pruner) so you don’t accidentally cut off a finger. It’s been known to happen.

If you are interested in gardening, or would like to learn more about gardening, consider joining Jardin du Lac garden club which meets the second Monday at 9 a.m. of every month at the Lake St. Louis Community Association clubhouse.

If you have a beautifully landscaped yard or have unique garden ornaments that you are proud of and would like to see featured on Patch.com, contact me at Bahrmasel@msn.com.