Spring Pruning 05/14/2011
 
 Pruning plants during the correct time of the year for the plants really is crucial for the overall health and beauty of the landscape.
Lots of folks make the mistake of pruning when the timing is good for them, which is usually in the Summer when it feels nice to be out in the garden and in the Fall when all the plants you didn't get to that Summer are overgrown, the yards a mess with the leaves and you just want it all whacked back and cleaned up before the Holidays. 
The problem there is that mid Summer is the right time to prune only a small host of plants in your yard and Fall is about the worst time to prune any softwood shrubs or any  trees......most folks dont want to do any yard work in the Winter or early Spring because it's cold and wet and gross out but Winter is the best time to prune your deciduous trees. Early Spring when it's really raining still and cold? - that's the best time for getting the garden cleaned up and mulched. 

(If that does not sound like times of the year your into working in your garden - but you do want it to be healthy and not rely on chemicals or lots of whirring motors to keep it maintained, maybe just call your local, small time, long with experience, friendly, sometimes a little late and behind the 8 ball but always shows up eventually and works hard landscaper or gardener and have them do the real grunt work - which when done right gives you a whole Summer in the garden with nothing to do but dead head an occasional flower and then just hang out and enjoy. :) Hint Hint.)

Here's a guideline for when to prune:

Puning Early Spring Bloomers
For plants such as azalea, rhododendron, camellia and forsythia, the timing is after their Spring show is over and their bloom are fading fast in the oncoming Summer heat. Pruning them soon after the blooms have completely fallen off is a great way to ensure a good looking plant for the rest of the Summer, and to ensure great flowers the next Spring.
 -You can dead head off the spent flower blooms on rhododendron, azalea and camellia if you want to, but be sure to wait until the blooms are fully dry and pop right off as you can damage new delicate growth really easily if you have to tug on the spent bloom at all to get it to come off - it is not necessary at all to do this for the health of the plant - they dont care, but it does look better when they are picked off.

It's important to think about as you prune these kinds of plants as well as many other softwood plants (which are usually all your shrub type plants) that the flower is produced on the previous seasons growth.
So they should be pruned after flowering to allow new wood to grow and that wood will then have time to produce flower buds for the next flowering season. If you look closely at a camellia branch from new tip back and note where the flowers did bloom, and where the new buds that will bloom next are, you can really get a picture of this process to help you make your decisions on where too cut. Your timing is also important depending on how long your growing season is.

Pruning Evergreens
Late Spring is also the perfect time to prune the "narrow leaved" members of the evergreen family such as pine, spruce and fir. These are the kind of evergreens that create a new upright burst of growth from the tips of their branches in Spring called a "candle". To restrict the size of these plants you simply remove one half to two thirds of the candles as they produce. The candles reach full size with in a few weeks of appearing and should be pruned before they "set" for the year. You can also remove unwanted, broken or dead branches at this time. Timing is important for evergreens because of the timing of their sap runs and you never want to prune when the sap is running on any plant.

Post Pruning

Once the pruning is done, and depending on the weather it is always good to give the plant a big drink of water - think of it as a 'post-operative' necessity. You do not want to fertilize after pruning as this will encourage too much of the wrong kind of growth....wait until the fall to fertilize with a basic organic fertilizer and follow the directions on the package exactly.

Since a lot of these kinds of plants can get very large it is important to have them pruned well for the best health and vigor of the plant, and they will pay you back twofold with their particular brand of beauty!

 
 
You get regular check ups and take your pets to the vet - and if you are a home owner there is one more living thing you are responsible for that needs regular check ups as well and that is your yard and garden.
 

Having a healthy, easily managed, pest free and environmentally friendly garden starts with having a health care plan for you garden. The concept of Plant Health Care (PHC) stems from the environmentally sensitive approach to pest control in the garden called Integrated Pest Management (IPM).


IPM practices are more holistic than the name implies and include all aspects of the garden's health, not just how to kill the bugs the most environmentally friendly way. PHC is the first step to successful IPM techniques being utilized in your own garden. Plant health care is both an attitude and use of techniques in garden maintenance and has been being utilized by professional landscape companies that practice organic only gardening for years. (And as my company is one of them, I can speak from 15 years experience that these techniques do work.)


Turns out bugs are not your worst enemy in the garden; Many folks see things going wrong with a plant in the garden and think bugs first, however most of the time this is not the case. For example at the Plant Diagnostic Laboratory at WSU in Puyallup half the plants submitted for diagnosis were not affected by insect pests or disease organisms but rather were sick due to cultural and environmental factors such as drought stress, winter damage and over watering.

Plant Health Care (PHC) "sees proper culture as the foundation of healthy landscapes and emphasizes working with nature rather than fighting it with a 'Learn Your Ecosystem' approach.

  •   The first step in implementing a PHC system for your yard is to identify and list all of the plants in your yard. Once you know what plants are in your yard and garden you will then be able to research them for their cultural needs, most common pest problems and common environmental problems. While researching you may discover that you have some of the kinds of plants that are the most problem prone and require the most attention. If this task sounds too daunting then contact a local landscape company and ask for a consultation for plant identification.
    Once you know what kind of plants you have you can then identify key problems both biotic (insects, fungi, slugs, deer etc.) and biotic (non-living factors such as weather, irrigation, soil fertility). Key problems are the first things to look for as they are the most likely to be impacting a plants health. ( for example; rhododendrons usually suffer from either root weevils or poor drainage. ) 
     The next step is to study your landscapes ecosystem. Become aware of climatic factors such as minimum temperatures, prevailing winds, seasonal patterns of precipitation and the amount of sun received in different areas of the garden. Knowing the wet spots, hot spots, dry spots etc. will enable you to match the right plants to the different habitats in your yard. Also understand what kind of soils you have in different areas and how they drain - there may be clay in one sunny area and sand in another where it is shady and these very different cultures may be only a back yard apart from each other. This can make a huge difference in what plants will thrive in these very different locations.
    A large part of PHC is to monitor your garden on a regular basis (or hire a professional landscape service that understand PHC to do maintenance for you) Monitoring at least every two weeks during the growing season of Spring - Summer and at least once a month during the Fall - Winter is essential. When out in the garden check for signs of plant distress (wilting leaves, yellowing leaves, die back) and be on the look out for developing pest problems (aphids, chew holes on leaves). Concentrate your monitoring on the key plants that get the key problems to start and you will develop your eye for problems over time as you observe for many seasons.

    Once you know what you have and know what is going on with your ecosystems you will have the knowledge to optimize your plants health.

  •  This begins with smart planting in the first place. If you have found you have a lot of problem plants then the best thing to do in the long run may be to replace them with plants properly suited to the conditions and climate you have to work with. This will also give you an opportunity to create more diversity in the garden, which naturally limits infestations. The addition of Native plants is an excellent choice to create the right diversity in your yard for a sustainable ecosystem.
Once these changes have been made and you have the "right plant in the right place" then you must employ good cultural practices to ensure future health: Improve you soil with mulch and organic matter, pay careful attention to watering and, very importantly, prune only in the correct season for the individual plant.


Once cultural and environmental problems have been minimized then many garden problems are naturally avoided - think of it as preventative medicine! Healthy plants are naturally able to withstand insect and disease damage and small infestations will work them selves out in a healthy ecosystem. If problems do arise then an IPM approach can then be used with great success.