Rejuvenate Your Plantings With Spring Pruning
March 23, 2021What is Spring Pruning?**
As the temperatures rise, your landscaping begins to blossom and green up, we thought sharing a few of our spring ‘must do’ spring pruning knowledge might be helpful.
Do You Have Questions?
- What plants in your landscape need spring pruning?
- How do you go about spring pruning?
- How spring pruning beneficial?
We have answers! Read on for a quick guide and the answers to these questions.
Why Is Spring Pruning Beneficial?
Proper pruning can remove dead or diseased branches, as well as shape shrubs, bushes, and trees into more aesthetically pleasing forms. Some plants flower only on new growth, so pruning these plants promotes blooming and keeps overgrowth to a minimum. Other plants simply respond better to pruning during the dormant period of early spring, allowing stored nutrients to reach the actively growing parts of the plant.
What is Rejuvenative Pruning?
Spring pruning is advantageous in that it allows you to properly assess a plant’s shape without blooms and new growth so there are fewer obstructions to determining the plant’s final shape. Pruning in early spring also allows the wounds created by the cuts you’ve made to seal properly before the rapid growth to come with warmer days.
Trees
With many trees, such as birches, maples, oaks, elms and crab apples, you should only prune during the winter months, to prevent pests and diseases from accessing fresh cuts, or to prevent excess sap from bleeding out. Prune spring flowering trees, such as dogwoods, only after flowering. You can prune dogwoods down to only a few branches each year.
Evergreens
Both needled and broadleaf evergreens can benefit from spring pruning. Focus on the desired shape of the shrub and trim to fit. Remove overgrown new growth, dead, and unwanted branches, but avoid cutting into old wood since it may not sprout again.
Summer Flowering Plants
Spring is an ideal time to prune shrubs and vines that do not flower in spring, such as crepe myrtle, butterfly bush, and Pee Gee hydrangea, but you must prune before the plant pushes out new growth. Trim to the desired shape and remove excess growth and thickness.
Spring Flowering Plants
Do not prune plants that flower in spring, such as lilacs, most roses, forsythia, most hydrangeas, and rhododendrons, until after they’ve flowered in late spring. Since they bear blooms on wood formed the previous year, prune right after blooming to prevent removing the new growth that will produce blooms next year.
Questions about pruning? Contact us for a consultation at your earliest convenience.
**This is a re-post from a previous article published in the spring of 2019
DiSabatino Landscaping design experts can help you determine all the answers to these questions and help you build a beautifully landscape yard that is sustainable and rejuvenating from year to year.
DiSabatino Landscaping creates beautiful custom landscaping for residents in Delaware and the surrounding area. If you would like to find out what we can create for you, please get in touch
302-764-0408 | DiSabatinoInc.com
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DiSabatino Landscaping is Delaware’s #1 Hardscape and Landscape Specialist. We can help advise you what is best way to create outdoor living spaces Give us a call today! 302-764-0408