The Art of Gardening
By Judy Ogden
Pruning for Health, Beauty
and Fitness
“The speaker, who stands transfixed by mystic thoughts, discounts the gardener’s
mission to assess growth, spray, and prune.” Amy Lowell
Pruning is one of the garden tasks that many people struggle with. In reality
it is simple if you understand how plants grow and flower. Also it is an ideal job
which will get you out into the garden and
get active as you will need to walk around
the property to assess where work needs
to be done. Then you will get more ex-
ercise by reaching, stretching and cutting
limbs off plants. Please be careful not to
overdo things though, either to your own
body or to any of the plants you are deal-
ing with as mistakes or injuries can take a
long time to heal.
Pruning tasks can be divided into two
different categories: cosmetic and health.
Pruning for health includes pruning out
sick or dead wood, or branches that prevent a plant from growing in a
healthy way. Identifying dead branches is perhaps the easiest to do. It
can be done by scratching the bark with your nail or a sharp blade to see
if the wood is green or dead
underneath. Green wood will
be white or green, moist and
fresh. Dead wood will be dry
and hard. You can remove
dead wood from a tree or shrub
at any time of the year. Prune
at the base where the dead
wood ends and the green wood
begins. Sometimes a part of
a tree might not be dead, but
close to death. It might have
wilted leaves, shriveled stems
or branches with dark blotches
and discoloration. It’s often
beneficial to remove these
sick parts sooner than later,
before the illness has chance to
spread to the rest of the plant.
Crossing branches or branches
that rub, although healthy in
appearance, ultimately require
removal because of the damage caused by the chafing.
Cosmetic pruning affects shape, aesthetics and appearance. It’s not
required for the plant’s health, but may indirectly help by promoting a
compact and better balanced
plant. Yet if done incorrectly
it can have the reverse affect
inviting disease, pest attack and
poor plant growth. Some of the
easiest cosmetic pruning to start
with is cutting back extra-long
random tips that extend beyond
the main part of the plant.
These are easy to identify, you
know them when you see them.
These tips can be removed at
any time of the year. Cut the
tip down into the center of the
plant rather than at the edge,
where you will have to cut it back again by the next growing season.
When wanting to prune for shape and size, it depends on what type
of plant it is, and when it flowers. Many plants are sheared or trimmed in
such a way that you never get to enjoy the plant’s habit or flowers. The
first step is to know when the plant flowers and on what kind of wood the
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Northshoerian JuneJuly 2009.indd22 22 6/16/2009 1:16:52 PM
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