Today in the Gardener's Journal I am writing about pruning. Why Prune?
There are a variety of reasons why one should prune plants. For example, to maintain health, keeping a desired appearance or cutting out unwanted branches or those that have died back due to winter or disease. One can also regenerative prune plants to encourage leaf growth. By pruning plants you are regenerating or refocusing its energy on growing again instead of fighting a dead branch. I've always equated pruning to one getting a hair cut. Haven't you always heard that getting your hair cut makes your hair stronger and healthier? Similar right?
Let's take a look at some of the plants in my garden that I've pruned today.
Even though this dogwood is blooming beautifully when looking at it from the bottom up, you can see many dead small branches that are darker brown and visibly dead from winter dieback.
This dogwood is definitely a show stopper in my landscape this year and I can't wait to see what it does next year now that I've cleaned up the dead branches.
This butterfly bush was in bad need of a good pruning. Again, it suffered from the past winter and dieback. While it may not bloom this year due to it's small size and underachieved growth, a good pruning will regenerate its leaf growth and promote health in the general growth of the plant. Who knows! Maybe it will even surprise me and bloom too!
This branch wanted to push out new growth but with the dead wood on top it was taking longer than it should have.
My Itea's took a beating this past winter. Not only did it take longer than usual to show any signs of life, now that the leaves have started to appear again, it's easy to see what is dead from winter dieback. You can even hear the dead wood when you move it. It sounds like kindling, different than a branch that has life inside it.
Again, while it may look small now, we'll visit this shrub in a couple weeks and you'll be amazed how fast it regained strength.
Let's visit my Viburnums. Another shrub that although has leafed out very well despite the dead branching, a good regenerative pruning will only make this shrub look healthier, cleaner and more uniform. Note that I've only pruned off the branches and twigs that have no leaf growth or blooms on them and are visibly darker and dead compared to a branch that has more life.
I bet next year I'll be enjoying more of these fragrant flowers indeed.
Another Viburnum that has done well despite the dead wood that deters from its immediate beauty.
Same exact photo but without the dead branch at the end, isn't it beautiful?
Lastly, here is my Andromeda that I actually pruned back lightly a few weeks ago after the blooms had expired. Within two weeks, I was rewarded with these beautiful new leaves. This proves to me that pruning, when done correctly, and during the right time, can restore health and vigor in plants.
For more information on pruning, click on the link below:
