Fun with Clippers, or Plants Don't Cry

Plants Don’t Cry, or Why Pruning Matters

I have spent my entire career and most of my free time staring at plants. I can’t seem to help myself. Driving around the Bay Area I note every stunning tree and hot-looking flower bed. I also see neglect, water stress, and an epidemic of bad pruning. It is easy, with my temperament anyway, to become annoyed. A plant is not supposed to look like an overgrown basketball. Who is doing this stuff? And why? Yikes, some people have no more business all up in your shrubbery that I would, if I called myself a dentist and began poking at your teeth.
Recently I went to see a former client. As we stepped into the back yard she casually mentioned “The garden was overgrown, so my husband hired someone to cut it all back.” So warned, I was still unprepared for what I witnessed that day. For I came upon a scene of such carnage, such utter ineptitude and callous insensitivity, I was shocked speechless. Virtually every plant in the garden; tree, shrub and perennial, deciduous or evergreen, spring, summer or winter-flowering, monocot or dicot, woody or herbaceous, had been cut. Cut exactly the same way and exactly the same amount, as if some Robot from Hell had been put on automatic pilot with a stopwatch and a pair of hedge trimmers. Many of the shrubs had been set back years. But it is the design of the garden as a whole that suffered most. No dynamism, no flow, just a series of semi-rounded clumps of plant matter; denuded, humiliated, lifeless. Made more poignant by the fact that much brown dead stuff was still clinging to what was left of the branches and blades. For whoever the culprits were, they had neglected the number one rule of pruning- first, remove all the dead stuff.

Don’t let this happen to you. Here are a few simple facts for do-it-yourselfers and those who don’t:
Most perennials and many ornamental grasses appreciate being cut back seasonally; in the Bay Area that usually means before the rains or after the rains. Check your Western Garden Book. Deadheading is always good. Weeding is always good. Installed as a 5-gallon plant, most slow-to-moderately-growing shrubs will not need pruning for a year or more beyond taking off dead material and watching for crossed or crowded branches. Eventually, pruning for shape and size must happen.

If you want to prune your shrubs, first determine when and how they bloom. Spring-flowering shrubs should be pruned after blooming; if they are pruned now, you will lose next season’s blossoms. Summer and fall-flowering shrubs should be pruned in spring. Always use clean, sharp tools and follow this general formula. First, remove everything dead or diseased, cleanly and at an angle to the main trunk or just above the leaf node. Many older canes should be cut all the way to the ground. Second, cut out any branches that are crossing into the plant blocking light and air flow or rubbing against other branches. You want to allow air and sunlight to the center of the plant and a nice, v-shape. Unless, of course, you want a hedge, which is another discussion. Third, cut for shapeliness, size and beauty. Take your time and walk away often. Have a look from the patio, from the street. Does your shrub seem to be doing what it was meant to do? Don’t be timid, but do be observant. When in doubt, you can probably look it up on line. Or call in a professional. Ask questions, get references, and remember that thoughtful and expert pruning takes time. Don’t hire anyone who tells you otherwise.