
If you’re like many residents in Austin, TX, much of your landscape design incorporates a variety of different shrubs and trees. These plants can make a wonderful focal point for the yard, and they can provide shade in the heat of the summer months as well. As with any plant, though, not all growth is healthy growth, and pruning is often required for shrubs and trees. Need a bit of advice in that area? This quick guide can help.
The best time to prune any ornamental trees or shrubs depends both on the type of plant you’re dealing with as well as the reason you’ve decided to prune. In Austin, winter is a good time to prune and thin out your trees and shrubs. If you want more flowers for choices like lindens and hydrangeas, you’ll want to do your pruning in the late winter. If you’re thinking of those that bloom in the spring, the best time to prune is after they’ve actually bloomed. Roses don’t get pruned until the buds start swelling, which often occurs in February. With a deciduous tree, January is usually the preferred pruning time.
General Pruning Tips
When you do decide to prune, you’ll need the right tools on hand. First, make sure you go with bypass pruners instead of the anvil variety. If you’re cutting branches that are larger than ½ inch, go with a small folding saw instead. If you need to prune something fairly tall, a pole pruner should do the job. NO matter what tool you end up using, though, make certain it’s sharp. Oil and sharpen your blades every season for the best possible pruning.
Make certain that you cut any dying branches back to where you see green wood again. If you’re dealing with disease, you’ll want to cut just an inch or two below the diseased space. You’ll want to make certain that you remove any limbs growing downward or those that may be in the way of clearance. Those shoots at the base of the trunk that come from the roots, also called suckers, should be pulled as soon as they come up. They can suck the nutrients out of the bulk of the tree.
If you cut the tips back from your shrubs regularly, keep in mind that new growth will only occur near the tips. The sunlight won’t be able to get to the denser interior, so those branches might get a bit too sparse. If you happen to notice that issue, thinning is the best idea, but you’ll only want to tackle this task with hand pruners. Only remove a third of the shrub at any given time.
If you’re ever feeling a little unsure about pruning, it’s best to contact an Austin landscaping service to help. Professionals can help you not only decide which bushes and trees need pruning, but they can make dealing with the very large ones that much easier. They’ll help keep your trees and shrubs healthy throughout the year.
Growth (126/365) | Flickr – Photo Sharing! : taken from – http://www.flickr.com/photos/8047705@N02/5697203141/Author: LifeSupercharger http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en














