Proper pruning of ornamentals is one way to help keep your customers plants healthy and beautiful and a gardening encyclopedia is a must have for this type of work. The whole point of pruning is to stimulate new growth close to where the pruning cut was made. When pruning branches from a bush, don’t cut the branches so they are even with the rest of the bush, if you do you’ll soon be pruning again. Instead cut the branches back inside of the bush, this will cause fuller growth from inside the bush. Remember when pruning fruit or flowers, you should let the types of plants that you are dealing with determine your pruning schedule. In general, with a plant that blooms before May, you should prune just as soon as the blooms fade, if the plant blooms in the month of May or later in the year, these should be pruned in late February to early March before the start of the new growth in the spring. Early winter and fall is generally a bad time to prune, you will stimulate the plant to put out new growth and the cold weather will only damage it, and this is true for almost all plants. January thru the middle of the summer is a good time to prune plants that are grown only for their green foliage such as hollies and boxwoods.
A small number of shrubs can be rejuvenated by severe pruning. This method consists of cutting the whole plant down to just four to six inches from the ground. Usually only hollies, azaleas and camellias should have this done. With Boxwoods or Junipers, you should transplant them to a different location if possible, and never use this method on them, they do not tolerate it very well. Since crape myrtle trees flower in summer, prune them before new growth begins in the spring. Crape myrtles will tolerate heavy pruning. For a shrub-like crape myrtle, cut it to the ground so many new trunks can sprout. For a tree-like crape myrtle, thin branches for a more open look. Camellias only need pruning to maintain an attractive form. They may not need pruning every year. When you do prune camellias, prune fall and winter bloomers in March and spring bloomers after flowers have faded.
