Pruning is a key component to maintain the health and appearance of your trees, plants and shrubs. It’s important to remove the dead and damaged. Pruning also trains plant growth, improves structure, reinvigorates your plants, and adds value to them.

Timing
When do you prune? A good rule of thumb is to prune a plant once it finishes blooming.

– In early spring – prune ornamental grasses, semi-woody perennials, boxwoods, holly, firethorn; woody vines, such as summer and fall-blooming clematis; roses, and summer-flowering trees and shrubs.
– In spring and early-summer – prune evergreen shrubs, forsythia, rhododendrons, and other spring-flowering shrubs. Do not prune oaks and elms during their growing season.
– In mid-summer and fall – dead head flowering perennials and flowering annuals. During the summer, pruning will allow you to redirect the growth of younger plants.
– In the winter – prune deciduous and evergreen trees. There will be fewer pests in the winter, less impact on the plant’s vigor and the least amount of setback stress. Don’t prune evergreens after July 4^th or before Halloween.

Types of Pruning Cuts
– Deadheading/Pinching is ideal for woody and herbaceous plants. It prevents seed and fruit formation, while improving the productivity in most annuals and perennials. It extends the current bloom and promotes a second bloom.
– Thinning: Perfect for trees and shrubs to remove entire branches or limbs. Thinning allows for better circulation and reduces crowding. Always cut at a slight angle and leave about ¼ inch of the shoot above the bud – not a long stub.
– Shearing: Ideal for boxwoods and yews, use scissor-like pruning shears to keep hedges straight and neat.

What to Prune
– The trick to pruning correctly is knowing exactly what to cut. Remove any crossing branches or inward growing branches that make the plant look uneven.
– Prune dead and old wood, and competing leaders, which are branches that extend high above the rest.
– Prune lateral growth on berry plants after they’ve been established two years. 
– Remove water sprouts that develop on trees in unwanted areas.  Cut completely back to the main trunk or base.

Types of Pruning Tools
– Hand pruners: Use by-pass hand pruners, which have a curved blade that uses a scissors action to pass next to, not on top of, the lower surface. These are designed to catch and hold the branch while the cutting blade comes down. Every day pruners are ideal for cutting twigs and smaller branches and cutting woody perennial stems.
– Hand shears: Strong enough to prune hard branches of trees and shrubs.
– Loppers: Loppers are a type of scissors best used for twigs and small branches. We carry three loppers by Radius, including the PRO Detail Lopper (the best for detailing pruning), the PRO Lopper (designed to cut branches up to 1.5” in diameter) and PRO XL Lopper (designed to cut branches up to 1.5″ in diameter). The loppers by Radius are light weight, but super strong and sharp.
– Pruning saws: Pruning saws are ideal for a branch that may be too thick for the otherwise-preferable use of hand pruners or loppers. We carry a selection of pruning saws, including ones by Fiskars. Hand saws make quick, clean cuts through thick branches.

Hestra Garden Gloves protect your hands while working in the yard. Hestra’s gloves offer a lot of dexterity, while protecting against the job you’re doing.
– Multi-Use Gloves are designed for a variety of uses that require the best fit, dexterity and hand protection. They’re hand-crafted using the finest leather and performance fabrics.
– Garden Dip Gloves have form fitting nitrile-dipped gloves for extra grip and dexterity in wet or dry conditions. They’re breathable, seamless, stretch polyester knit fabric. They’re great for potting, planting, tool use and everyday projects.
– Garden Bamboo Gloves are soft, fitted latex dipped gloves with extra grip in wet and dry conditions. They’re breathable, eco-friendly bamboo-spandex. They also have a nice, form-fitting Velcro closure. All of Hestra’s gloves are perfect for potting, planting, wedding, and everyday projects.
– Utilis: Heavy-duty, latex-dripped cotton work gloves with aggressively textured grip for wet and dry environments.