Anybody started pruning their shrubs yet? I don't want to miss the best time, and so many things are beginning to bud and grow, and if there isn't another frost and everything just keeps growing. But if I prune now, will the next frost damage those freshly cut branches?? I'm thinking especially Cotinus, red twig dogwood, maybe California lilac, butterfly bush, and then apple and persimmon trees. Janet
I had the same wonderment the other day as I looked at my apple tree and cut just a few smaller branches anyway. The tree had been pruned of most of its suckers of last Spring during late August, something I read for this climate where it is often rainy during traditional pruning times of winter. So it looks pretty good now but there are a few things I want to shape up in it yet. The only thing I've ever been horrified at after cutting it too late was a grape vine which drip, drip, dripped for days after cutting in in late Spring one year. Really, if not a lot is being cut on an apple it can be done almost any time. Otherwise late summer is fine as the wounds heal well in the drier time and the tree does not shoot more growth after that as it does in the Spring. Roses are traditionally done here when the Forsythia blooms, as a rule of thumb. Sometimes they die back to the next node, one lower than I might want so I tend to cut them a bit longer to allow for it. But those are just my home garden experiences. I am no Arborist and I hope to read an informed answer from one who is!
I did my hydrangeas today...they are already leafing out so it seemed to be the right time. Unfortunately, I can't do my roses before we leave on holiday for 2 weeks...I know it is early, but the forsythia is about to bloom and that is supposed to be the time to prune roses! My arborists did my crab apple tree and katsura tree in early January.
In the mild PNW climate, you can prune most fruit trees, and just about anything else, about any time you feel like it or have the time for it. I've been doing it that way for over 30 years and have never had any problems, except once. A large sweet cherry tree has suffered from sunscald after I removed a significant number of branches in its centre, to let more light in. This sort of major pruning should probably be delayed to early spring, unless you want to paint or whitewash the exposed branches.
I prune some of my evergreen trees and shrubs in the winter for shape and in the spring to encourage growth where I what it. As soon as the branches start to show signs of new shoots cut them back to an inch or two of the previous years growth and this triggers the plant to put out more growth in that area. Butterfly bushes can with stand a hash pruning and in my opinion be shovel pruned and thrown out. They are every invasive and can spread into the surrounding area. Roses especially hybrid teas can probably be left till later when the fear of frost has past. This year though it feels like you could most likely get away with pruning earlier.
In my opinion, which may not be the best, is that we should be pruning most fruit and oranmentals now, before the sap really flows. I pruned my apples, plum, peach, nectarine and roses earlier this week. There was no significant sap flow even tho the roses have started to dud. In a week or two, when the buds start to break, and I will be busy grafting about the neighborhood, mostly apples and plums as well as my own roses. Some of you avid gardeners should take a look at grafting as its a great adjunt to our other passions. There are so many single fruited trees in my area and most people would love to swap fruit with someone else and basically its a 20 minute lesson from some one in the know. I have 3 very different tea roses on different corners of my house, each with a different energy and growing pattern, so I will bud graft many colours on each.
