Spring Springing, Pruning, Shearing and Fertilizing
Dear Gardening Friends,
I hope that you have been enjoying the little signs of spring that are opening up all around. I particularly like the opening up of tree buds. Here is a picture I took while up on a ladder of a hickory bud opening.
I hope that you have been enjoying the little signs of spring that are opening up all around. I particularly like the opening up of tree buds. Here is a picture I took while up on a ladder of a hickory bud opening.
Kind of cool eh? Like two praying hands...
So, with warmer weather comes renewed enthusiasm for getting out into the garden. That enthusiasm includes a desire both to make ready and to tidy, both of which desires may involve getting out and cleaning off your pruners. A couple of eager folks with pruners all ready to go have asked when was I going to get around to the promised pruning articles! So here is the first one.
There is much to say about pruning, but just for right now, as spring erupts and your gardener juices start flowing again, and you want to know what to do or not do now, I have just a few thoughts...
Side note: while pruning or talking about pruning I often think about the line in Bob Segar's "Against the Wind" that goes "what to leave in, what to leave out." A perfect pruning question! And then there is that other great line not really so applicable to pruning, but I just like it - "wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then." Seriously.
OK if you now have that song in your head, click here to hear it.
The most important thing when it comes to pruning is knowing the plants. Plants vary greatly from one another as to when they bloom, when they set buds, and how they respond to certain kinds of cuts, and so forth.
So on this beautiful early spring weekend you are armed and ready with newly cleaned and sharpened hand pruners ....but you are unsure. Should I prune this plant now or later, and what about that one?
This is an important question, for in fact, some plants set their buds last summer and fall for flowering this spring. These flowering buds overwinter and are ready to burst out in early spring! If you prune these now you will lose your spring flowers.
So which plants are on the "do not prune" list for early March? Here are a few - they should not be pruned until after they have flowered. Some of these flower quite early. This is NOT an exhaustive list. Please write me if you have questions about a particular plant.
forsythia
azalea
regular mophead hydrangea
mock orange
dogwood
red bud
fothergilla
quince
oak leaf hydrangea
camellia
banana shrub
rhododendrom
pieris
burning bush
sweet shrub
loropetalum
pyracantha
viburnums (with exceptions)
spring blooming spirea
weigela
sweetspire
winter honeysuckle
Note: almost all deciduous trees set flowering buds before winter. It is a fine time to prune out dead wood, or take wayward branches back to the trunk or bigger branch junction. Unless you like killing branches NEVER EVER just randomly cut limbs at random places a few feet from the trunk or bigger branch, leaving stubs on the tree. This is an invitation to fingal disease.
There are a number of plants that set flower buds on NEW growth, and if you are going to prune any of these, the sooner the better. A few examples...
knock out roses (most shrub roses)
abelia
limelight hydrangeas
nandina
crape myrtle
beautyberry
althea (rose of sharon)
chaste tree
lantana
butterfly bush
clethra
oleander
wisteria
summer spirea
hibiscus
And then there are the myriad of plants that you are not growing for their showy flowers...but first, another side note...
I am often asked whether a certain plant flowers. Well, most of the plants we are talking about are angiosperms, or flowering plants. In other words, they produce flowers, and after flowers fruit (OK, some plants are sterile). The question is do we care about the flowers they produce? Personally I love cherry laurel flower clusters but most folks hate the fruit that follows so if a cherry laurel needs to be trimmed back no great loss.. Same with ligustrum. Or cleyera. Cleyera, if allowed to grow up to its normal height of 15+ feet, with a 10-15 foot width, has lovely little flowers and wonderful little fruit. It's a really pretty plant. But almost no one plants cleyera where it can just be a cleyera (this is the number one pruning "problem" - wrong plant for the space).
Folks just don't grow cleyera or any number of other evergreen shrubs for the flowery show, because there isn't one, so these plants can be pruned now for general shaping and tidying, especially if you forgot to do that last fall.
cleyera
elaeagnus
boxwood
hollies
euonymous
yew
wax myrtle
pittosporum
fatsia
leather leaf mahonia
photinia
auvuba
barberry
harry lauder's walking stick
tea olive
Of course knowing what to prune when and knowing how to prune them are different things, and if in doubt please do write. I'll address some of the how to's in another newsletter.
But just in case you missed the memo....DO NOT SHEAR. In fact put away your hedge clippers and electric or gas shearers immediately. Have someone hide them from you. And do not let your lawn service shear.
I've been asked about fertilizing. The simple answer is wait. Wait a few weeks. No need to get the plants all hot and excited only to be cruelly killed by a late hard freeze.
Well, that should be it for now.
So, with warmer weather comes renewed enthusiasm for getting out into the garden. That enthusiasm includes a desire both to make ready and to tidy, both of which desires may involve getting out and cleaning off your pruners. A couple of eager folks with pruners all ready to go have asked when was I going to get around to the promised pruning articles! So here is the first one.
There is much to say about pruning, but just for right now, as spring erupts and your gardener juices start flowing again, and you want to know what to do or not do now, I have just a few thoughts...
Side note: while pruning or talking about pruning I often think about the line in Bob Segar's "Against the Wind" that goes "what to leave in, what to leave out." A perfect pruning question! And then there is that other great line not really so applicable to pruning, but I just like it - "wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then." Seriously.
OK if you now have that song in your head, click here to hear it.
The most important thing when it comes to pruning is knowing the plants. Plants vary greatly from one another as to when they bloom, when they set buds, and how they respond to certain kinds of cuts, and so forth.
So on this beautiful early spring weekend you are armed and ready with newly cleaned and sharpened hand pruners ....but you are unsure. Should I prune this plant now or later, and what about that one?
This is an important question, for in fact, some plants set their buds last summer and fall for flowering this spring. These flowering buds overwinter and are ready to burst out in early spring! If you prune these now you will lose your spring flowers.
So which plants are on the "do not prune" list for early March? Here are a few - they should not be pruned until after they have flowered. Some of these flower quite early. This is NOT an exhaustive list. Please write me if you have questions about a particular plant.
forsythia
azalea
regular mophead hydrangea
mock orange
dogwood
red bud
fothergilla
quince
oak leaf hydrangea
camellia
banana shrub
rhododendrom
pieris
burning bush
sweet shrub
loropetalum
pyracantha
viburnums (with exceptions)
spring blooming spirea
weigela
sweetspire
winter honeysuckle
Note: almost all deciduous trees set flowering buds before winter. It is a fine time to prune out dead wood, or take wayward branches back to the trunk or bigger branch junction. Unless you like killing branches NEVER EVER just randomly cut limbs at random places a few feet from the trunk or bigger branch, leaving stubs on the tree. This is an invitation to fingal disease.
There are a number of plants that set flower buds on NEW growth, and if you are going to prune any of these, the sooner the better. A few examples...
knock out roses (most shrub roses)
abelia
limelight hydrangeas
nandina
crape myrtle
beautyberry
althea (rose of sharon)
chaste tree
lantana
butterfly bush
clethra
oleander
wisteria
summer spirea
hibiscus
And then there are the myriad of plants that you are not growing for their showy flowers...but first, another side note...
I am often asked whether a certain plant flowers. Well, most of the plants we are talking about are angiosperms, or flowering plants. In other words, they produce flowers, and after flowers fruit (OK, some plants are sterile). The question is do we care about the flowers they produce? Personally I love cherry laurel flower clusters but most folks hate the fruit that follows so if a cherry laurel needs to be trimmed back no great loss.. Same with ligustrum. Or cleyera. Cleyera, if allowed to grow up to its normal height of 15+ feet, with a 10-15 foot width, has lovely little flowers and wonderful little fruit. It's a really pretty plant. But almost no one plants cleyera where it can just be a cleyera (this is the number one pruning "problem" - wrong plant for the space).
Folks just don't grow cleyera or any number of other evergreen shrubs for the flowery show, because there isn't one, so these plants can be pruned now for general shaping and tidying, especially if you forgot to do that last fall.
cleyera
elaeagnus
boxwood
hollies
euonymous
yew
wax myrtle
pittosporum
fatsia
leather leaf mahonia
photinia
auvuba
barberry
harry lauder's walking stick
tea olive
Of course knowing what to prune when and knowing how to prune them are different things, and if in doubt please do write. I'll address some of the how to's in another newsletter.
But just in case you missed the memo....DO NOT SHEAR. In fact put away your hedge clippers and electric or gas shearers immediately. Have someone hide them from you. And do not let your lawn service shear.
I've been asked about fertilizing. The simple answer is wait. Wait a few weeks. No need to get the plants all hot and excited only to be cruelly killed by a late hard freeze.
Well, that should be it for now.