Pruning: Try It. You'll Like It!

As I'm writing this it's late winter, the best time to prune deciduous trees and shrubs because they're stilll dormant. Oh, except for the ones that flower in spring or early summer, which you probably shouldn't prune til after their flowers fade. But there's NO need to rely on any little rules like that one. No, siree. Because there are outstanding books about pruning that list all the common garden plants and tell you WHAT to do to them and WHEN. boxwood

Or you can just Google "prune boxwood" or whatever the plant type is and voila! I used that example for a client 50 or so venerable but overgrown boxwoods were threatening to block their front walkway. So, how do you prune them back substantially without hurting them? Google led me to a very clear article written by an expert at the National Arboretum - an authority I was very happy to rely on. I did what they said, taught the homeowner how to keep doing it, and so far, so good.

Best Ways to Learn How

Over on GardenRant I reviewed a Fine Gardening DVD about pruning and asked the bigger question: How DO you teach pruning? So with the help of the always-thought-provoking comments there, here are sources that are helping people learn the wonderful art of pruning.

Books//DVDs

Ann Lovejoy, a gardening mentor of mine through her wonderful books, loves Guide to Pruning by Cass Turnbull. Regional Garden Guru Debby Teachout-Treashon also recommends it.

My personal favorite is Pruning Made Easy by Peter McHoy. He teaches 9 different types of pruning, then provides an index telling which type to use with every plant you can think of. The types relate to the way each plant grows, and it all begins to make sense. (Though nothing really makes sense til you've done it and seen plants respond.)

The Pruning Book by Lee Reich is another that comes highly recommended, and he's a frequent contributor to Fine Gardening magazine on the subject.

Turns out that Fine Gardening's DVD is something I can recommend, though if you'd rather not spend the $25, most of it can be found on their website.

Stuff on the Web that Costs $$

Plant Amnesty.org was recommended to me and I was surprised to learn that it's a membership organization, and information comes with a pricetag, which starts at $15/year (for "limited income") through $120 ("Tree Defender" and who doesn't want to be one of those?) to $500 lifetime. Sure, their 900+ members get a newsletter, but suddenly I realize it's not a vitual community at all but very much an in-person group in the Seattle area. Their programs include free consultations, teaching events of all kinds, letter-writing against tree topping, and social events. And it turns out that Cass Turnbull, the guru of pruning whose book is so loved, actually founded the organization. Boy if they were in MY city, I'd definitely join. Someday...

Best of the Free Stuff on the Web

Browse the Web and you'll find lots of outdated articles by Extension Services, articles that never did a good job of teaching pruning and wow - they're still there, decades later. But I haven't included them in this list. And I WISH I could recommend the Arbor Day site's pruning guide but its little animation was TOO simple, I'm afraid.

I was happy to see that Plant Amnesty has SOME free stuff on the web: their Free Pruning Topics. and Regional Pruning Guides.

This U.S. Forest Service's advice about Pruning Trees looks good.

U. of Florida's Pruning Trees is a good resource.

Virginia Cooperative Extension has this handy chart about when and how to prune some common garden plants. Very easy to refer to.

I like Purdue's PDF about Pruning Ornamental Trees and Shrubs.

The U. of Illinois does a good job with Pruning for Roses.

This site all about hydrangeas explains how to prune but errs in actually recommending it be done for big-leaf hydrangeas (the most common type). Most sources now recommend not pruning them at all and I agree - they're beautiful right up until December, so why hack them back in mid-summer?

Tools

Ooh, I love my pruning tools and show them off at length in the Tools & Stuff section.