Pruning

Pruning Tips: When To Prune Plants And What Pruning Tools To Use

We often hear about the 3 Ds of pruning. We think it should be the 4 Ds: dead, diseased, damaged, and let’s add disorderly to that list – we have all seen a branch or stem that goes entirely against all others, you know, just doing its own thing. So for us, it’s the 4 Ds: Dead, Diseased, Damaged And Disorderly.

Buyer’s Guide:

  • How To Choose A Garden Hand Pruner (Secateur)
  • How To Choose A Pruning Saw (Garden Hand Saw)
  • How To Choose A Lopper (Long Handled Pruner)

    • Why Prune?

    Why prune? To maintain healthy and attractive plants in the garden. There are times when it is important to prune and eliminate crossing and rubbing branches to reduce congested growth and foster healthy conditions to discourage diseases. Pruning additionally improves a plant’s shape to make it more attractive by correcting its natural form. Of course, removing unwanted growth and thinning out twiggy or straggly stem redirects the energy to more vigorous and healthy branches. We also often need to train a young plant to set it in the right direction for an appealing form or encourage better flower or fruit production. Perhaps you need to prune to reduce the plant size or remove hazardous branches that are in the way of a path or potentially damage property – this type of pruning is best left to a professional arborist and hiring a reputable team to do the job, especially when it comes to large trees.

    Whether pruning to balance growth, removing dead or disease stems, doing routine annual cuts, renovation or hard pruning, plants’ requirements will differ. In each of the plant recommendations below, we’ve added notes on how and when to prune it.