As the leaves fall, pruning season is upon us
Congratulations: you made it to October. Pruning month.
While you were busy digging, planting, harvesting and the like, the plants in your garden were busy growing. While this notion may seem obvious, the point of gardening for the most part is growing stuff and chances are good that you have missed one point of producing great-looking trees, shrubs and other permanent plants in your garden. From time to time they need a little discipline.
Pruning is to plants what bed time is to children. We have some rules that we follow (and sometimes bend) in our effort to create order in our lives.
Part of the agreement that we have with nature is that she produces plant growth through the miracle of photosynthesis, the alchemy of soil, CO2, water and a variety of other elements. Our part is to guide the whole scheme in such a way as it makes sense. This is where pruning comes in.
My Top 5 pruning tips for October: 1. Cedars One of the most commonly asked pruning questions that I get is, “When do I prune my cedar hedge?” The answer is, “Anytime,” but now is best of all. Get out there this weekend and you will get the bonus of some new growth that will fill in the clipped, formal appearance of a newly shaped cedar hedge. Not only that but you will enjoy the benefits of new growth that will occur next spring 2. Junipers and boxwood If you have not pruned your junipers yet this season get to it this month. They will not flush with new growth as cedars do in October but they will look a lot neater and the growth that you cut off will help the plant to withstand the excess weight of wet snow and ice this winter. Ditto boxwood and taxus (yews). Keep in mind with junipers that we do not “shape” them with a pair of hedge shears as we do boxwood. Use hand pruners to reach into the juniper and remove the heaviest wood and longest growth, giving it a more compact, dense shape as a result. 3. Perennials To cut down and remove or not . . . that is a good question! And the answer, to be as straightforward as I can be, is to cut down and compost the soft tissue leaves of hostas, peonies, meadow rue and the like. You will know what are “soft tissue” after a few frosts as the leaves will collapse. The stiff-stemmed perennials that flowered late in summer and early fall are best left standing: Echinacea, rudbeckia, ornamental grasses and even sunflowers (which are not perennial) all provide lots of mature seeds for foraging song birds all winter and a modicum of winter interest in an otherwise bleak Canadian landscape. 4. Leafy trees Deciduous trees that need to be pruned should be pruned now. Maples, beech, birch: all of the hardwoods respond best to late season pruning. Don’t leave this until the leaves have fallen off and winter is just around the corner as some trees bleed in the spring, sometimes to excess, when you prune them too late. Look for “Y” and forked branches and remove the weakest of the two. Also, thin out dense growth to encourage sun to filter into the middle of the tree. This helps to minimize disease problems next season. 5. Evergreen trees Spruce, fir, pine and the like lend themselves to fall pruning. When you prune them this time of year you encourage more dense growth next season. This is the best time of year to shape a spruce into the perfect Christmas tree shape or your dwarf mugho pine into the perfect sphere. The appearance of a freshly pruned evergreen may be a bit harsh but in time it will fill in and soften. What not to prune: Fruit trees are different. I prune my apple trees late in the winter, around March, when the sun is shining and the snow is not too deep to get the job done. Winter pruning helps to maximize fruit production. Peaches, nectarines and apricots respond best to aggressive pruning early in spring. Prunes and plums also. Pears do not like to be pruned generally, but if you have to do it to keep them under control, do it in late winter. Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster and garden editor of Reno & Decor magazine. Get his free monthly newsletter at markcullen.com. Watch him on CTV Canada AM every Wednesday at 8:45 a.m. Email him at groundskeeper@markcullen.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkCullen4 and Facebook.