When to prune your plants often depends on why

We prune plants for many reasons. We prune fruit trees to improve the size and sweetness of fruit. We prune plants to have a good crop of fruit every year. We prune plants for safety; we do not want trees or their branches to fall and cause damage or injury to people. We prune plants to improve flowering of plants. We prune for artistic purposes (topiaries and hedges). We prune plants to make them fit into the landscape.

The last reason may not be a good reason to prune. It would be better to pick plants that fit our landscape without pruning, this saves water and labor.

The correct time to prune is many times based on your reason to prune the plant.

Many gardeners start to think about pruning their trees and shrubs as soon as trees start-turning color in fall and losing their leaves. Most deciduous plants (plants that lose their leaves) are best to be pruned in late January. This includes fruit trees, deciduous shade trees and most roses, with a few exceptions.

This is the optimum time to prune this group of plants. It will not hurt to prune your fruit or shade trees as soon as the leaves have fallen off, however your trees will not start to heal the pruning cuts until the plant starts growing next spring.

It is always time to prune dead, diseased, damaged (broken) branches off your plants. It is easier to identify these problems when the plants are growing, than after the leaves have fallen off. You should also remove suckers from the bottom of plants as soon as you notice them. So this should be accomplished as soon as you can, if you have not done so recently.

Spring blooming plants like forsythia, lilac, Lady Banks roses, or plants that flower only once in spring or early summer should not be pruned in winter. It is best to wait and prune them after they bloom. Pruning these plants in winter just reduces the flowers that would bloom in spring.

Flowering Peach, flowering cherry and flowering crabapple should also be pruned immediately after they finish blooming next spring. This allows you to have a spectacular flower show in the spring. After the plant has finished blooming, then they need to be pruned.

For most of these plants, that would have been late spring or summer. If you prune these plants during the winter, you are just removing the future flower buds and decreasing the flower show for the coming season.

The best time to prune evergreen trees and shrubs is during the plant’s growing season, which is mainly spring through fall. This allows the plants to heal quickly. Evergreen

trees and shrubs are plants that do not lose their leaves in the winter. This includes pines, junipers, magnolias and other plants that have leaves on the plant yearround.

There are two types of evergreen plants, broadleaf evergreens and conifers. Broadleaf evergreens are typical landscape shrubs like Indian hawthorn and privet. Conifers are cone-bearing plants like pine trees, junipers, and cypress. Broadleaf evergreens can be pruned anytime but are best pruned after they flower. Conifers are best pruned during their growing season, which is fall and spring.

Herbaceous plants like daylilies, fortnight lilies and ornamental grasses are best not to have the dead or damaged leaves removed until next spring. Even though the dead leaves look bad on the plants during the winter, they insulate the roots. Removing the dead leaves during the winter could actually kill the plants, by allowing the roots to freeze. Examples of herbaceous plants include agapanthus (Lily of the Nile), daylilies, fortnight lilies, yarrow, asparagus fern and shasta daisies to name a few.

If your first impulse is to grab the pruning shears and attack your landscape shrubs, roses and fruit trees, stop. It is best not to prune any plants until the end of January. At best you can clean, sharpen and adjust your pruning tools now. But it is not time to do much major pruning of your plants.