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Pruning time

Calendar critical when preserving beauty

February and early March are the times to put your pruning shears and saws to work. The plants are still dormant, but soon the warm weather will encourage them to sprout new growth and recover from the cuts you make.

It's not advisable to prune in late fall because the pruning cuts won't have time to harden off before cold weather sets in, making the healthy wood below the pruning wounds susceptible to pests and disease.

Spring-blooming trees and shrubs - azalea, dogwood, camellia, forsythia, rhododendron and the Bradford pear - should be pruned after they bloom but before July. If you prune them now, you will destroy their blooming beauty.

You can prune roses until Feb. 15. But pruning roses later than mid-February will ruin the buds they begin to produce around March 1.


HOW TO PRUNE:

Here are some tips for pruning plants that often get pruned incorrectly:

  • Red-tipped photinias: Susceptible to leaf spot, they should be pruned in February with thinning cuts to let air and light get to the middle of the plant. Use staggered heading-back cuts to reduce height. Use a dormant oil spray in late February or March 1, before the buds break, to suffocate spores that would cause leaf spot. When the plants leaf out, use a systemic fungicide - Cleary 3336 - to control leaf spot. Continue to spray through June 15.
      
  • Hydrangea: Bears flowers on growth from past year. As the plant gets older, select the oldest canes and remove. Do not cut tip unless training the plant or the canes are turning inward. Prune to outside bud so plant will grow in that direction.
     
  • Holly: There are no specific pruning rules for hollies and most other broad-leaf evergreens. Most tolerate severe pruning and are fast growers that fill in space quickly. Azaleas and boxwoods do NOT tolerate hard pruning because they are slow growers. Use thinning cuts on evergreens to let air and light in or they will be susceptible to scale and aphid attack.

PRUNING PRIMER:

  • Look at the natural habit or growth of a tree or shrub before you prune it. All shoots grow outward from their tips. When tips are removed, the buds directly below the pruned part will grow.
     
  • A properly pruned tree or shrub will retain its natural shape and not look like it's been given a flat-top cut.
     
  • Remove dead, dying, damaged or unsightly parts of trees, sprouts growing at or near the base of trunks, suckers, crossed branches and V-shaped crotches. Use the ``fingernail'' test to identify dead wood: take the thumbnail and nick the branch to see if there is still green tissue below the bark, indicating the branch is alive. If there's no green tissue, it's dead wood and should be removed. When pruning dead or diseased wood, disinfect tools between each cut with products such as Lysol, Listerine or rubbing alcohol.
      
  • Don't coat pruning cuts with tree paint or wound dressings or other materials. The tree will heal better on its own.
     
  • Prune fruit trees before mid-February, removing dead or rubbing branches; prune for openness and overall shape. Spray with dormant oil to kill overwintering scale and mites.

PRUNING CUTS

There are two basic types of pruning cuts:

Heading cut: This reduces height of plant and helps it keep its natural form. Also stimulates growth of buds closest to the cut. The direction in which the closest remaining bud is pointing will determine the direction of new growth.

Thinning cut: These remove branches where they start or are attached. They also open the interior of the plant so light and air can get in and help reduce the chance of pests and disease attacking the foliage and stems.


PRUNING HELP

Virginia Cooperative Extension offices offer lots of free literature on pruning and some pruning clinics in February. Contact: Chesapeake: 382-6349; Gloucester: 693-2602; Hampton: 727-6447; Isle of Wight County: 365-6256; James City County: 566-1367; Mathews: 725-7196; Middlesex: 758-4120; Newport News: 591-4838; Norfolk: 683-2816; Suffolk: 925-6409; York County: 890-3730; Virginia Beach: 427-4769.

``Easy, Practical Pruning'' by Barbara Ellis, one of Taylor's new weekend gardening guides published by Houghton Mifflin. Discusses techniques for training trees, shrubs, vines and roses with easy-to-follow graphics. $12.95.


HOW TO PROPERTY PRUNE A CRAPE MYRTLE TREE

Blooms should be distributed throughout the entire tree.  The blooms should not be located only at the tip ends of branches.  The boom should be on all of the small spurs of the plant.  This plant has bloom at all heights; not just at 13 feet.

If branches on the outer canopy are rubbing, remove the weaker branch.

Remove crossing branches.  Rubbing branches cause wounds where insects and disease can enter.

Remove branches growing inward from the scaffold (main) branches.   To allow for light and air penetration.  Reduces the use of pesticides.

Remove narrow crotch angles.  Wider angles are stronger for better support.

Remove suckers at base.  Suckers are quick-growing shoots that drain the plant's resources.  Aphids (insects) feed heavily on suckers.  Mildew (disease) reduces the plant's ability to make food.

Branches that are black are to be removed.

February 1998

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