When Should You Prune Your Trees And Shrubs?

When Should You Prune Your Trees And Shrubs?

Pruning is an important part of keeping the trees and shrubs in your landscape healthy and attractive. It encourages strong branching and removes weak or crossing branches, eliminates dead or diseased wood, stimulates new, attractive growth, helps improve resistance to windy conditions, promotes good air circulation, and decreases the incidence of fungal disease. When to prune depends on whether the plants bloom on old or new growth. Examples include roses, fruit trees, hydrangeas, deciduous and flowering trees, and hydrangeas.
Flowering shrubs are divided into two groups: Hydrangeas that produce blooms on old growth should be pruned back in late summer, after they finish flowering in late spring to early summer, and Hydrangea macrophylla and oakleaf hydrangeas (H. quercifolia) bloom on old wood. Needle-bearing shrubs and trees, such as yew, are best pruned in early spring, while still dormant, and trees that lose their leaves when they are leafless and dormant can be pruned in winter or spring. Pruning when trees are stripped of their leaves allows you to see their branch structure more clearly, making it easier to determine where to prune and enabling the pruning cuts to heal more quickly with the flush of spring growth.