A Few Prunes to Keep Things Going

As a new gardener I am always asking questions of people in shops, neighbors, gardening bloggers, anyone who has reason to know more about any given habit or rule that I do. Which used to be just about any given habit or rule. Happily, I am now occasionally asked my opinion on various gardening subjects, and it is really fun. When I listen to my favorite Saturday morning calling garden show, I feel like I'm playing Jeopardy!, calling out answers before the host weighs in. One subject, however, remains a bit of a mystery, although I think I'm developing a personal style about it. Pruning, is my latest berm to conquer!

Why, when, what and how to prune are the subjects of many opinions and the information out there can be bewildering. I search for plant X /pruning on the internet and among the 1 million entries I can generally find half that many different thoughts. So I started my pruning theory with the why. That's how I usually approach a new idea or gardening practice. Why should I prune anything anyway? Pruning, in my oh-so-logical reasoning is what gives me a role in the life and and beauty of my plants. All the watering, weeding and even feeding in the world, doesn't really change the shape or growing pattern of a perennial or shrub, or even a tree. But a good pruning at the right time can give them new life, change an unsightly growth habit or keep the plant to a manageable size. By trimming away a plant whose season is over, I can make way for those whose fall flowering get a turn at being the star. Pruning makes me a part of the whole cycle of new life, flowering and dormancy in my yard and garden.

My children have heard over and over the metaphor of the forsythia - perhaps the first opinion I developed about pruning. Most often, the forsythia, a lovely spring bloomer worth having all year for the 2 beautiful weeks it is in bloom, is trimmed as if it were a hedge. It took me years of noticing them to be able to identify which mediocre hedge-like shrub was forsythia and which could be any number of any other varieties. Homeowners and contract landscapers often trim them to square or round shapes in the fall, both destroying the natural shape, and cutting off the summer's growth where blossoms sprout each spring. It finally occurred to me that forsythia were much like my teenagers. If they were pruned after blossoming to their natural shape, taking the old canes from the bottom as they grew unproductive or unhealthy, leaving those branches which had produced healthy blossoms, they look like earthbound fireworks. Their shape is vaselike and the canes arch beautifully. But forced into an unnatrual shape, or pruned in the fall, they lose their unstructured beauty and most of their blossoming potential. Sure they need some direction and pruning, as even my really good kids did, but one size does not fit all and much of the fun in teenagers is in watching them sprout and blossom in their very own ways.

In recent years I have found some answers - at least my answers - to the how, when and what of pruning. Some plants get slimy and ugly during the winter and early spring and by cutting them down in the fall I save myself handling and looking at them in such a state. Some are too exposed by fall trimming and need to keep their stems or branches until spring as protection from hard frosts. My favorites just look really great with snow piled on their dry stalks or peeking through the occasional winter thaw. For several snowstorms each year, I sweep the snow off my fountain and feather reed grasses because they look so beautiful standing straight above the snow. After a while they succumb to breakage and are covered until it's time to cut them down in the early spring. If my research turns up conflicting answers about pruning or trimming back a given plant, I figure that plant's climate in my yard, any history it may already have there, what the grower recommends and what I want from it. Then I cut and hope!

I like to use the smallest pruning tool that will work for any given branch, stalk or stem, because that gives me the most control over what I cut. We don't have any hedges in our rather loosly structured yard, so I really never use a long bladed trimmer for anything. Sometimes a long handled trimmer is good for taller or thicker branches, but as often as possible I use a small hand trimmer - we have several weights and shapes. A small tool forces me close to the base and branch of each plant and helps me to really see what is happening with its growth. And again, I follow my best experience and grower recommendations as I decide whether to cut to the ground - as with most perennials and grasses- prune select branches of shrubs or trees, or mostly leave the old growth for interest and let it return to the earth as it dies and dries.

Greg often describes plants as either "well mannered" or "unruly" in their growth patterns. I love it when he says either thing, because I feel that it gives the plant a personality and helps me to know it better. I have also learned that a well mannered plant still occasionally misbehaves and needs direction, and the unruly ones are often truly beautiful in their wildness. Sometimes all any of them need to be at their best, are a few prunes.