There are two kinds of winter gardening. The first method
usually starts in January as the gardening catalogs begin to
arrive in the mail. This type of gardening is as easy and
sitting in your favorite chair, browsing the catalogs, and
either dreaming about what you're going to do this spring, or
actually drawing designs for the gardens you intend to work on.
The second type of winter gardening is to actually get out in
the yard and do a little work. Of course if it's bitter cold,
you'd be better off waiting for a good day.
Now is a good time to do some pruning if the temperatures are
around 30 degrees or so. I don't recommend pruning if it's
considerably below freezing because the wood is brittle and
will shatter when you make a cut.
One of the advantages of pruning during the winter is that you
can see much better what needs to be cut out and what should
stay. At least that's true with deciduous plants. The other
advantage is that the plants are dormant, and won't mind you
doing a little work on them.
Ornamental trees should pruned to remove competing branches.
Weeping Cherries, Flowering Dogwoods, Flowering Crabapples etc.
have a tendency to send branches in many different directions.
It is your job to decide how you want the plant to look, and
then start pruning to achieve that look.
But first stick your head inside the tree and see what you can
eliminate from there. This is like looking under the hood, and
when you do you'll see a lot of small branches that have been
starved of sunlight, that certainly don't add anything to the
plant, they are just there, and should be cut out.
Any branch that is growing toward the center of the tree where
it will get little sunlight should be cut out. Where there are
two branches that are crossing, one of them should be
eliminated. Once you get the inside of the plant cleaned up,
you can start shaping the outside.
Shaping the outside is actually quite easy. Just picture how
you want the plant to look, and picture imaginary lines of the
finished outline of the plant. Cut off anything that is outside
of these imaginary lines. It is also important to cut the tips
of branches that have not yet reached these imaginary lines in
order to force the plant to fill out.
For the most part plants have two kinds of growth. Terminal
branches and lateral branches. Each branch has one terminal bud
at the very end, and many lateral branches along the sides. The
terminal buds grow in an outward direction away from the plant.
Left uncut they just keep growing in the same direction, and
the plant grows tall and very thin. That's why the trees in the
woods are so thin and not very attractive.
When you cut a branch on a plant, the plant sets new buds just
below where you cut. When you remove the terminal bud the plant
will set multiple buds, this is how you make a plant nice and
full. Don't be afraid to trim your plants, they will be much
nicer because of it. The more you trim them, the fuller they
become.
Lots of people have a real problem with this. They just can't
bring themselves to prune. Especially when it comes to plants
like Japanese Red Maples. It kills them to even think about
pruning a plant like this. Just do it! You'll have a beautiful
plant because of it.
Look at the plant objectively. If you see a branch that looks
like it's growing to far in the wrong direction, cut it. If you
make a mistake it will grow back. Not pruning is the only
mistake you can make.
I hope this helps and doesn't get you in trouble with your
significant other. Many a family feud has started over pruning.
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About The Author
If you have questions for Mike McGroarty visit his website,
http://www.freeplants.com and post them on the message board
where you can learn lots of gardening tips and communicate with
other gardeners. While at his website you can learn how to
start your own profitable backyard nursery. If you would like
a copy of Mike's booklet, "The Secret of Growing Landscape
Plants from Scratch", send .00 to: Garden Secrets, P.O. Box
338, Perry, Ohio 44081
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