Hello!

Are some of your shrubs looking a bit unruly? If the shrubs have several stems or canes growing from the ground, they may be a candidate for renewal pruning. Common shrubs that can be pruned this way include native Ninebark, Red Osier Dogwood, Elderberry, Silky Willow, and non-natives like Forsythia, Mock Orange, and Bridal Wreath Spirea, to name a few.

How to Renewal Prune

With renewal pruning, the goal is to remove a third of the stems each year, beginning with any diseased, dead, misshapen, or rubbing stems. Once those are gone, remove the oldest (usually the thickest) stems. In year two, repeat the process with the next oldest stems, and again in year three. After year three, all of the shrub’s wood is no older than three years, and is generally healthier and better-looking than a shrub that has gone leggy and wild.

Sometimes, the shrub is so disorderly that it is worth cutting to the ground. In that case, cut all of the stems to three inches and start over.

Rewewal Pruning Tips:

• Always disinfect your pruners, loppers, or pruning saws with household rubbing alcohol before making any cuts, after you’ve cut a branch that looks diseased, and when switching between shrubs. Stop the spread!

• Cut each stem roughly 3 inches above the ground.

• Prune in the late winter and spring. If flowers are important to you, prune after flowering.

• Use the debris: make an out-of-the-way brush pile for wildlife habitat, chop the stems into tidbits and use them as mulch, try your hand at old-timey wattle fencing or basketweaving… The possibilities are endless!

But what about my electric hedge clippers?

Unless you have a Boxwood parterre or a topiary garden, put down the hedge clippers. Shaping with clippers can cause the interior foliage to die back while spurring new growth at the tips, creating something that only looks good in the short-term (though it keeps landscapers in business!).

Elsewhere:

Learn Your Land has a new video explaining why the east doesn’t grow enormous trees like the Sequoias and Redwoods in the west. Watch it here.

Have a great week,

Julie