Pruning for Better Plant Health

Recently, I was doing some bedtime reading from one of my favorite gardening books, Doug Welsh's "Texas Garden Almanac", and decided to brush up on a very important, but often feared, subject: Pruning. We are approaching the ideal time of year for pruning, so it's a good time to start looking at your landscape for what needs to be pruned.

First, why prune? Plants get by just fine in nature without someone hovering over them with shears, right? And, in fact, plants left to their own devices will self-prune. Weak, diseased limbs will fall. Limbs growing in the wrong direction will be shaded from sun by better-placed limbs and will eventually be starved of light and nutrients. So, we just help our plants along to be healthier and stronger (and so that your tree doesn't self-prune itself over your new car). We also prune to encourage better growth and growth in the right direction.

So, when to prune? This all depends on the plant, but in general late winter to early spring is the best time to prune most plants, just before new growth appears. Right now most plants branches are bare of leaves, so it is easier to step back and see the general growth patterns of the plant and determine a good pruning plan. The least desirable time to prune is right after new growth appears. Large amounts of stored energy are spent on new growth and the new foliage should be allowed to restore food to the plant before being pruned. So, there is a distinct time frame in which to accomplish pruning, after which you could cause damage to the plant. However, there are specific rules for specific plants. Spring flowering shrubs and trees, like mountain laurel and redbud, should be pruned soon after blooming. These plants are flowering on last season's growth, so removing this growth would prevent those beautiful blooms. Summer flowering shrubs and trees, like crepe myrtles, flower on spring growth and should be trimmed in the winter.

We know when, but how? Different methods of pruning are appropriate for the different plants in your garden. Native perennials and ornamental grasses can be sheared off almost to the ground to encourage bushy full growth in the spring. Eventually, ornamental grasses will need to be divided and replanted. Woody shrubs can be thinned and shaped to encourage a desired aesthetic. For some plants, like roses, pruning is essential to the health of the plant.

No matter how you cut it, correctly executed pruning is a beneficial practice to establish in your garden and now is a good time for most of the plants in your garden to be pruned. So, grab those shears or give me a call and let's get those plants ready for a beautiful spring!

Happy gardening!

Jeremiah