Poundridge Nurseries, Inc. - Blog

There is an increasingly vocal group of garden writers making their name by proclaiming the ease of low or no maintenance landscapes, and while a no maintenance garden sounds good, it just isn’t realistic. The truth is that the real work begins after the plants are in and the landscaping crew has loaded up and left.

Landscaping, unlike interior design or architecture, requires a commitment lasting the life span of the trees and shrubs in the design. When you buy a chair or table and put it in your house that’s more or less it. You have to vacuum or polish it now and then but there is no danger that it will grow too big to fit its place. The same is true for windows and walls. You may need to paint or clean them regularly, but you can count on them to stay more or less the same as when they were installed.

Not so for trees and shrubs. (We’ll talk about the pruning issues of perennials in a subsequent post.) Though it may be 8 feet tall with a root ball weighing in at over 400 pounds, a tree purchased from a nursery is just a child, or at best, an adolescent. It is within the first 10 years of what should be a life spanning 50, 60, 70 years. During this time it will grow and change considerably and similar to the way that how people are treated when they are young determines their success and longevity as adults, proper pruning shapes a young tree to be the best that it can be.

“Pruning is an operation which regulates and controls growth, flowering and fruiting, and with its aid the form of a tree or bush is determined.”
George E. Brown in “The Pruning of Trees, Shrubs, and Conifers”

Pruning is the nurture side of the nature vs. nurture upbringing of trees and the home gardener that learns how to properly prune (or hires qualified arborists to do it for them) is like a good parent assuming responsibility to raise their kids right.

A pruner prunes to make a better plant. More specifically, pruning corrects plant growth to create a pleasing shape or form. Pruning keeps a plant in bounds by controlling its growth and it removes dead branches or diseased wood. Pruning can also be part of a cultivation program designed to stimulate the production of flowers, fruit, or finer foliage.

Why am I discussing pruning in the middle of winter? Because winter is a perfect time to prune the deciduous trees and shrubs that make up such an important part of the landscape. With the leaves off it is easier to study the overall shape of the plant when making corrective cuts. In addition, when the plant is dormant large cuts are less of a shock to the system. Best of all, there ain’t much else to do in the garden during a New England February.

So be a good parent to your plants and either learn how to prune them yourself or hire someone who knows how to help you. You’ll be rewarded with healthy and strong, beautiful trees and shrubs that will accompany you well into old age.

By Daryl Beyers

Do you have a pruning horror story? Send it to us in a comment and we will post it online.

Click on this sentence to follow a link to the publisher of George Brown’s book on pruning.