Late March is an ideal time to start pruning your garden plants. Pruning is a peaceful, contemplative activity that offers the satisfaction of tangible, visible results. Fresh air and sunshine are an antidote for those who may be feeling anything but peaceful and contemplative lately. Pruning is a wonderful way to distance yourself from the 24-hour, doom-and-gloom news cycle, which can be overwhelming.
Timing is Everything:
• Pruning plants as they break dormancy makes it easier to identify and remove damaged or dead wood. As severe cold snaps fade, there is less likelihood of frost damaging freshly pruned plants.
• Once you have pruned, please do not clean up garden debris before those garden helpers wake up and get to work. Allow that debris extra time to ensure their survival so they can provide pollination and pest-control duties this summer. Leave the leaves to decompose, adding nutrients, maintaining soil moisture, and blunting weed growth.
• Having a garden bed with spent leaves for another month is a small price to pay for a healthier and more productive garden. If the view of an untidy bed is too much, just add an inch or two of mulch.
The Benefits of Pruning:
• Improves plant health. Removing dead, diseased, or damaged branches helps prevent the spread of pests and diseases. Always discard diseased cuttings.
• Encourages growth, stimulating new growth and fruit and flower development.
• Provides shape and structure. Pruning maintains your desired shape and size of the plant, ensuring it fits within your garden design.
• Increases air circulation. It thins out dense foliage, improves air circulation, and reduces fungal infections.
General Pruning Guidelines:
• Use the right tools. Keep pruning tools sharp and clean to make precise cuts and prevent the spread of diseases.
• If you’re not sure where to begin, start by cutting away any dead, damaged, or diseased branches.
• Thin out crowded areas. Prune branches that are crossing or rubbing against each other to improve air circulation and light penetration.
• Shape the plant. Trim back overgrown branches to maintain the plant’s desired shape and size.
• Avoid over-pruning. Only remove what is necessary. Excessive pruning stresses plants and hinders their desired growth.
Vary how you prune popular garden plants:
• Rose of Sharon: This is your pruning warm up plant. No matter how you prune, it will come back providing late season blooms.
• Roses: Late March is an excellent time to prune roses. Remove dead or damaged wood and cut back the remaining canes to about one-third of their height. Roses are the exception the “leave-the-leaf rule.” They are notorious for reinfection from overwintered rose debris. Always remove all cuttings and fallen rose leaves.
• Hydrangeas: Fools with tools eliminate blooms. Only prune white blooming hydrangeas now. Trim blue or colored ones right after bloom. To idiot proof your hydrangea beds, replace the old Nikko Blues with Endless Summer series, which bloom on old and new wood.
• Oakleaf and all mopheads: Prune after they bloom. When in doubt, don’t prune. Or send me an image, I’ll respond “prune” or “don’t prune.” Now go prune….
• Panicle Hydrangeas/Hydrangea paniculata: Limelight and Vanilla Strawberry bloom on new wood. Cut one-third of the plant to maintain its shape and encourage stronger stems.
• Smooth Hydrangeas /Hydran-gea arborescens: Annabelle & Incrediball can be cut back hard to 12 inches from the ground to encourage blooms and stronger stems.
• Caryopteris, Abelia and Japanese spirea: Cut back by half. Be careful, praying mantis like to lay their eggs deep within the protective thick branching of these plants. If you observe an egg sac, which will look like a lightly toasted marshmallow, please leave it alone, allowing the insects to hatch.
• Buddleia: Cut by half to three quarters. They have shallow roots, if they are unpruned and top heavy they may split or topple.
• Fruit Trees: Prune apple, pear, and other fruit trees in late March to shape the tree and remove any dead or diseased wood. That will improve fruit production.
• Perennials: Cut back dead foliage from perennials like daylilies, hostas, phlox, catnip, and ornamental grasses. This tidies up the garden, makes way for fresh spring growth, and shows you gaps to fill with new plants.
• Evergreens: Lightly prune evergreens to remove any dead or damaged branches. Notice we have a theme here. Avoid heavy pruning, as it can stress the plant and reduce its vigor.
Pruning is an essential gardening task, and done correctly it promotes the health and beauty of your plants. By following these guidelines and timing your pruning activities, you will set your garden up for a flourishing growing season. Remember to use the right tools, make clean cuts, and avoid over-pruning.
