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Pruning, the perfect cut

By Jos Van Hage

Trees and shrubs are pruned to encourage new growth and to direct growth for an even shaped tree. Pruning also improves the plants health as you remove any dead, diseased, or damaged branches and keeping the center of the plant open encourages good air circulation which in turn reduces the chance of fungus and disease to get hold. 

The majority of trees and shrubs or pruned in spring but early flowering shrubs, which have just finished blooming, are pruned after they have finished blooming. The list of flowering shrubs and trees that are pruned after blooming include Caragana, Cotoneaster, Hawthorn Eunoymus, Forsythia, Honeysuckle, Ornamental flowering Crab, Mock orange, Bog Rosemary, Flowering Cherry, Rhododendron, Currant, Spiraea x vanhouttei, Lilac, Viburnum, and Weigela. These are pruned after they have finished blooming because they form next year’s flower buds on this year’s new growth so by pruning them in spring when most other things are pruned would be cutting off potential blooms.

Spruce and Cedar trees along with both the upright and spreading junipers are pruned in the next couple of weeks to keep them evenly shaped. Low growing junipers tend to grow lopsided and so by pruning the new growth, evenly all around the plant should be even sided and the center will fill in more densely. 

Cedars and spruce also have the new growth sheared to create a full even shape. You do now want to cut into the old growth on Cedars leaving a brown patch because Cedars to not grow on old growth. Often Cedars are planted near a house and as they get taller reach into the eaves. If this happens you want to top them so that they do not grow into the eaves that would create problems in eaves not running properly.

Birch trees are either pruned in January or in the second or third week of July when the sap has stopped running. They are never pruned in spring when the sap is running as this will seriously set back the tree or kill it. If you are not sure whether the sap is running in July cut a small branch first and wait to see if the sap runs, if it does not after a few minutes then go ahead and prune the rest.

All other pruning is done in spring usually in April when the plants show signs of life but have not yet broken out into leaf yet. 

-Jos

Jos Van Hage  owns Art Knapps Garden Centres in Prince George, 
located On the Hart Highway,
Highway 16 West (College Heights)
Junction of the Old Cariboo Highway, and Highway 97 South

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