Pruning is a lot of fun! I just wish we didn’t have to do it in a rush. Sometimes there is isn’t enough time for proper pruning. So we gun it down and move on. Next!
Sheared roses
I thought about this when I paid a visit to my commercial sites. Most of the beds have rose bushes in them. Since they all sport lots of deadwood and many crossing branches it’s obvious they only get sheared.
But in this case there is enough time for pruning because I’m in charge and I’m doing all of the work. The pictures below show before and after shots. February is a great time for this work.
Removing all dead canes is easy and obvious. That’s step one. Step two involves size reduction by half or one third, depending. Step three involves the removal of any gnarly crossing canes. The finished rose bush should have nice canes radiating outward.
People sometimes panic when they see the finished product. Don’t be like them. The plant will direct its energy into the remaining canes and we can expect a good looking rose.
By next year these roses won’t take much time to prune. Since we removed all of the dead canes, I expect to be reducing the cane size only. It should be quick and easy.
One example
Dogwood case
Pruning in a rush also affects dogwoods like Redosier dogwood (Cornus sericea). Since mass planting rules out careful hand pruning, we take out our power shears. Beheading results in dead tips and the biggest stems get even bigger. Also, there is no time for thinning.
What’s wrong with the dogwoods above? For one, they are all sheared at the same height which isn’t very natural. Since we only have time for shearing, the biggest stems are not removed. Our aim should be to remove some of the biggest and oldest stems every season. This then leaves us with nice straight canes.
I prefer to hand prune the dogwoods and stagger the cuts so the plant doesn’t have a flat top.
Conclusion
We are often under pressure to get lots of pruning done in short amounts of time. I sometimes wish we could take more time. I do when I maintain my commercial sites. After all, I am in charge there.
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