To Prune or not to prune
'Pruning is a subject that often leaves garden owners quaking at the knees! How to prune, what to prune, when to prune? Different rules apply to different plants and it may all seem rather complicated and technical, when you look in a book. Early Spring, however, is a good time to get to grips with your secateurs and have a go at the basics. Even if you are not an expert, you can do some simple pruning to help shrubs grow better.The main purposes of pruning are to improve the health of plants, enhance the flowers, foliage or stems and to control the growth. Here are some points to bear in mind, when you make a start:
1. Sharpen your secateurs. You’ll damage plants with a blunt pair, as you will squash and tear stems, leaving untidy cuts where disease may enter.
2. You can’t go wrong if you start by cutting out all bits of the plant that are dead, diseased or dying. If the whole plant looks dead, make sure, by scraping off a small area of bark with your thumbnail and looking for green wood underneath.
3. Cut out branches that are crossing over and rubbing against each other. The crossover points are another area where disease may enter.
4. Cut back to a bud – this is what all the books say and it is easy when you know what to look for. Basically a bud is where the leaves or flowers grow from; it is usually a swollen lump on the stem, or there is sometimes a light ring around the stem. The plant will start to grow from the first bud beneath the place where you cut. If you cut a long way from a bud, you will be left with dead bits of branch above the growing buds.
5. If you cut back a vigorous plant hard, in an attempt to keep it small, it will often respond by growing even more. It may be better to replace it with a smaller variety.
6. Think about when the plant flowers. If it is early in the Spring, like lilac, it will have already made flower buds for this year, so if you cut off branches now, you won’t get any flowers. Some plants, like buddleia, flower later in the summer and will make their flower buds in the spring. So if you cut them back now, you will still get flowers.
7. Feed and mulch plants when you have pruned them, to help them recover.
8. You are unlikely to kill anything by pruning it badly! Unless you cut everything to the ground, there is a good chance that a plant will forgive any mistakes you make. It may look a little odd, but never mind, you can always try again next year!
There’s something very satisfying about accumulating a neat pile of cut stems at your feet, the sign of a job well done. Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can consult a good book for the finer points relating to individual species. Happy pruning!