Name that prune: Find out what stays, what goes
Thursday, March 4, 2004 8:44 AM PST
By Marianne Binetti
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E-mail this articleThe first week in March is the time to invest in a new pair of gardening gloves and sharpen the pruning shears. There is plenty to do this month, no matter if you are installing a new landscape or trying to control a yard that is growing out of bounds. Now is the time to prune summer flowering shrubs such as spiraea, some hydrangeas, Rose of Sharon hibiscus and your roses if you haven't already done the job. If in doubt about what branches to remove, go for anything broken, facing inward or longer than all the rest.
You can also begin the cleanup of perennials by pulling out the dead clumps from ornamental grasses and cutting back the bare black stems of asters, astilbe and sedum "Autumn Joy."' In general, if you see new green growth arising from the roots of a perennial plant, cut off the dead top growth but don't disturb the new green sprouts.
At this time, a pair of scissors is a good tool for pruning. You will be less likely to cut into thick, green growth with a pair of wimpy hand scissors.
Scissors will help stop overly ambitious gardeners from hacking the life out of prune-sensitive perennials such as lavender, lavatera and ceanothus.
Thick, healthy stems will be too tough to sever with scissors and only the thin, dead branch tips will be easily removed. Cutting into green wood is especially fatal to lavender this time of year, so take it easy.
Q. My new yard is overgrown and needs some major pruning. Are there any plants that should not be pruned this time of year? -- J.K., Kent
A. Spring-blooming shrubs such as forsythia, quince, rhodies and azaleas are best left in peace until after they are done putting on their big blooming show. This way you won't be insulting their yearlong preparations for flowering or miss out on the blooming performance. After the show, these shrubs will be in a more vegetative mood and will modestly cover any naked stumps left by pruning.
Q. I planted a red twig dogwood hedge in a low, wet spot of my yard, probably because it was a plant you recommended. That was seven or eight years ago and now this hedge has grown a little too well. What can I do to stop it from spreading and when should I prune red twig dogwood? -- G.H., Enumclaw
A. I confess. Recommending the native redtwig dogwood or Cornus stolonifera for moist areas of a yard sounds like something I would do - but did I neglect to warn you how happy this plant would be? It can grow to 15 feet tall and spread just as wide. The time to instill discipline and assert some control over this promiscuously bed-hopping shrub in early spring. Use a shovel to cut off any traveling underground roots and prune back any branches bending over to touch the soil. Both the red twig and yellow twig dogwood shrubs make beautiful winter screens, but in small yards, this big dogwood could be barking up the wrong tree.
Q. How often should I prune my dogwood trees? -- B.B. e-mail
A. Rarely or never. Dogwood trees (and cherry trees) hate to be pruned. You do have permission to remove dead, damaged and diseased branches anytime of year on any plant. The preceding question was recommending the pruning of dogwood shrubs (Cornus stolonifera) not dogwood trees (Cornus florida and Cornus kousa.) Having said that, I have to admit to pruning about one third of the branches from my own "Cherokee Chief" flowering dogwood. This was to remove all the diseased, black and twisted foliage. It was either prune off the infected branches or cut down the tree. My tree eventually survived this last ditch, heroic measure but suffered painfully for a few years before recovering.
Send your gardening questions to Marianne Binetti at P.O. Box 872, Enumclaw WA 98022, enclosing a self-addressed, stamped envelope for a personal reply. Or see her Web site: www.binettigarden.com
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