Pruning is a productive way to bring back life to troubled plants and make them happy and green all over again.
Basically, shrubs with unproductive parts are pruned to promote growth and vitality. Undoubtedly it is an essential trick for home gardeners, landscape gardeners, lawn decorators, and so forth, you get the gist.
These key pruning practices will keep your bush lush and vibrant. Couple them with mandatory tree care resolutions and you won’t have to worry about your shrubs again.
Shrub pruning: shaping the plant with one perfect snip at a time
Shrub pruning is an important tool in gardening as it limits the available energy to the viable buds, leaves, and branches; this will aid the plant to develop at the peak of the blooming season.
If you really want to see your garden turn into a work of art, consider giving us a call. Else, if you feel like taking matters into your own hands, read on to know how you can keep your greens lively.
Find the limbs which need trimming, place the cuts in tactical positions so that strong branches have the capacity to bloom and bear fruits. The key pruning idea is to trim the untidy shrub at the right time, in a manner that cleans up the plant visually and helps it grow.
MUST DO:
Maintain a proper toolbox for gardening. Dull edges can damage stems or branches.
Trim a messy looking stub and revive growth by pruning the shrub
Shoddy gardening work results in a messy garden and weak plant growth as well, in case you were wondering.
DO:
To undo badly chopped shrub stumps, make a sharp cut at an angle of 45 degrees in the direction you want the bud to take growth. However, be utterly sure that you use a sharp tool to make the cut, or else you’ll end up with a shoddily chopped stub yourself. The key pruning technique here is to make a clean chop in a manner such that the lowest point of the cut and the bud are farthest from each other.
DON’T:
Never snip at any other angle than 45 degrees, this will make an uneven cut and expose a large surface area to the elements. Additionally, avoid making a cut that leaves more than ¼ inch above the bud, or else the shrub will catch rot. These fatal mistakes will make a plant grow and heal slowly.
If you have a nagging doubt that your tree is sick, lookout for these signs.
Thinning Cuts: Blow life into lifeless branches
DO:
The key identifiers to look out for while shrub pruning is the branches that can reproduce new growth. Make the best of thinning cuts to eliminate tangles and dried-up branches. Clear away the dense foliage and supplementary growth to let air and light dance in the open heart of the plant. Best to use electric shears or clean and sharp manual pruners to get the job done.
DON’T:
You can trim up to 1/3rd of the total structure of the plant. So, don’t just prune off old branches randomly. Make cuts only after observing the weak links and identifying the major healthy stems.
For seasonal plants like Rose Lilac etc, thinning cuts need to be timed accurately. Shrub pruning is an efficient trick to bring growth into flowering plants. For plants like Rose, pruning should be done by early winter to have flowers in late spring.
Steady a lopsided shrub with the key pruning techniques
DO:
Heading cuts shorten a branch, and allows you to impel new and healthy growth in any direction you want. Now to do that, you need to do prune the shorter side of the lopsided shrub. Though it seems anti-climactic, this is a key pruning strategy to bring balance to the shrub.
Use a sharp pruning tool to remove the part of the stem, slightly above the bud to stimulate growth in your favored direction.
DON’T:
A single cut must not reduce the length by more than 1/4th of the total foliage. No matter how tempted you are to snip it all away, try to use thinning cuts along with heading cuts and remove older woods.
If you follow the procedure, the main stem gets proper sustenance which in turn will drive growth in potential branches. Now you know how to mold the growth of your indoor plant.
Rejuvenate old, tangled, and woody shrubs
The remedy to woody stems is simple, you have to allow new stems to come out and get rid of the old branches. How to do that?
DO:
Start chopping the old and woody stems from the base and make your way to the center. The next year, as new branches substitute the older ones, it’s time to trim off the remainder. It takes usually two years to three years to remove all old woods and rejuvenate the plant when you follow the proper guide to shrub pruning.
DON’T:
As we have mentioned before, never try and trim more than 1/3rd of the plant’s mass. This is done to ensure that the plant has enough healthy branches to photosynthesize and survive the year.
The key pruning idea here is, don’t try to rush. The whole process is gradual and every cut has to be given a year to develop.
Helping evergreen flowering plants bloom along the sides
Evergreen plants need some extra love and care, after all, they will be around when others won’t. For twiggy flowering plants, pruning the terminal ends by nipping off the buds promotes tertiary growth, and the shrub branches out in the sides. Couple this with heading cuts and make the plant grow in any direction you want.
DO’S:
Remove the terminal leaf buds by pinching to allow an undeveloped bud below to blossom. This is how you encourage lush branching. For evergreen flowering plants, this is the right way to control the overall shape and size of the shrub.
DON’T:
When you are trying to make flowers bloom, be very careful and don’t pinch away the flower buds in the process. In case you don’t know, they are the lush and bigger looking ones perched at the tip of the branches.