Speaker 1: Coming to you from Studio A here at Proven Winners
Speaker 1: Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified podcast,
Speaker 1: radio and YouTube show with Stacey Hervella, me, Rick Weist,
Speaker 1: and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, today we'll
Speaker 1: talk about pruning. And wow, what a topic. It's an
Speaker 1: element of no maintenance landscaping. And when I say no maintenance,
Speaker 1: I don't mean an oh, I mean k now, cause
Speaker 1: it really pays to know what you're doing. And it's
Speaker 1: a stimulating topic. Did you see what I did there?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's dive into it. You know, we'll cut
Speaker 1: off over the years. Very good, That is well done.
Speaker 1: I set you up there. Okay. So the questions I
Speaker 1: get throughout the years about pruning, many of them center
Speaker 1: around lavender, cutting back your ornamental grasses, spring bulbs, bud lea, hydranges,
Speaker 1: bramble fruits, rhododendrons, and azaleas.
Speaker 3: Would you agree definitely, hydrangeas and lavender those are the
Speaker 3: big ones. And yeah, buddleia gets in there as well.
Speaker 3: And I think there's just a lot of things that
Speaker 3: people wonder if they should prune. Yes, And I want
Speaker 3: to say, right, off the bat to everyone listening that
Speaker 3: pruning is not necessarily a sign of a good, well
Speaker 3: maintained landscape. You know. I think that people tend often
Speaker 3: to prune things because it makes it look like they're
Speaker 3: taking care of their landscape. It's like I'm showing that
Speaker 3: I care because I went out and I meet bald
Speaker 3: these poor you know, yellow privets and red barberries at
Speaker 3: the gas station landscape, you know, and that they're like, Okay,
Speaker 3: now it's maintained.
Speaker 2: Now you can tell that I care.
Speaker 1: So you feel like you need to do so.
Speaker 3: Some people, Yeah, but I don't think that that means
Speaker 3: just because it's maintained and pruned within an injury's life
Speaker 3: means that it's a good landscape, a healthy landscape. People,
Speaker 3: I think generally over prune. But maybe that's just my
Speaker 3: own personal No.
Speaker 1: I agree. I'm not into the meatballs in tuna can look,
Speaker 1: I really am not. So it's interesting. And you know,
Speaker 1: when I think about one of the first things I
Speaker 1: know i'm cut off here, Stacy, but one of the
Speaker 1: first things that pops into my mind when we say
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about pruning is shoplifting.
Speaker 3: Oh oh, like proplifting when people take plant parts from
Speaker 3: the store to them.
Speaker 1: When I ran a garden center, it was the number
Speaker 1: one shopliftable item. Pruning shares.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that makes it. And they are expensive.
Speaker 1: They're expensive' pracy. But the point here is, here's the
Speaker 1: reason I bring it up. It is worth it to
Speaker 1: have good quality pruning shares, good sharp, clean bypass pruning shares. Saw.
Speaker 1: If you want to do good job, you got to
Speaker 1: have good tools.
Speaker 3: Got to get bypassed pruners. And that's the thing I think.
Speaker 3: And I made this mistake when I was new to
Speaker 3: gardening and I was a poor student. The anvil pruners
Speaker 3: were much cheaper than the bypass pruners. So the anvil
Speaker 3: prunters have a blade that comes down on a plate
Speaker 3: like sshers yep, and then the bypass pruners are like
Speaker 3: scissors where the blades bypassed one another. I didn't have
Speaker 3: a lot of money. I just saw the pruners. I
Speaker 3: was like, these are cheap and in my budget, and
Speaker 3: I bought them, and that was my first pair of pruners.
Speaker 3: Is embarrassing as that is to say, but anvilprunters are
Speaker 3: really only good for cut flowers. After you cut them
Speaker 3: off the plant and you're arranging them. Or I hear
Speaker 3: a lot of forestry people using because they stay sharper longer,
Speaker 3: but not a great choice around the land home landscape.
Speaker 3: I agree spring for the bypass pruners. You'll be glad
Speaker 3: that you did in selell your hands.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So when we talk about pruning, one of
Speaker 1: the first things we have to do is ask why,
Speaker 1: and we prune to maintain plant health, remove dead or
Speaker 1: dying branches, disease branches, to train a plant shape or height,
Speaker 1: improve the quality of the foliage or the stems or
Speaker 1: the flowers, because many times pruning will induce that on plants,
Speaker 1: restricting growth hazards, safety, first fruit production, rejuvenation of an
Speaker 1: old shrub, that sort of thing. So there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of reasons why you would permit it.
Speaker 3: You know. I have given so many pruning talks in
Speaker 3: my time, and the number one thing that I say
Speaker 3: right off the bat, besides pruning does not equal a
Speaker 3: good landscape, is that you should always have a reason
Speaker 3: why you are punting. It might be multiple reasons, but
Speaker 3: every subsequent decision that you make about pruning, timing, how
Speaker 3: much all this other stuff depends on the reason why
Speaker 3: you are pruning in the first place. So if you
Speaker 3: don't have that reason good and fixed in your brain,
Speaker 3: you can't move on after that. So if you find
Speaker 3: yourself going, what do I do, you have to go
Speaker 3: back and revisit that reason that got you out there
Speaker 3: with your pruning chairs in the first place.
Speaker 1: I agree, and so you'll hear these general rules of thumb,
Speaker 1: like the one third rule. You know, cut back guy
Speaker 1: one third. I use a budgeting analogy. Think of it
Speaker 1: this way, and this drives me crazy. Stacey is and
Speaker 1: I see it in landscapes, in homes everywhere. And that
Speaker 1: is let's say, for example, you're having problems with your
Speaker 1: personal budget, and so you need to do a little pruning.
Speaker 1: Don't spend as much money. You can't go in there
Speaker 1: and just cut ten percent off of everything. You can't
Speaker 1: decide I'm going to reduce my mortgage or my rent
Speaker 1: by ten percent now, or my insurance because you're not
Speaker 1: gonna get away with it, so you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: pick other things and reduce them further. So what I
Speaker 1: see is I see topping or snipping. So pruning is
Speaker 1: a lot like watering. If people are indecisive as to
Speaker 1: what to do. Then they decide to do just a
Speaker 1: little bit based on a schedule, and that's a big
Speaker 1: mistake because it creates real problems. Take a look at
Speaker 1: your pruning, step back from the plant and decide, well,
Speaker 1: you know that stem's coming out completely because it's a
Speaker 1: crossing or a weak branch, That one's going to be
Speaker 1: cut back by a third, That one I'm going to
Speaker 1: leave alone. I really believe selective pruning is important, but
Speaker 1: understandably there is so much confusion because there are different
Speaker 1: rules for different plants. Again, if I go back to hydranges,
Speaker 1: you created demystifying hydranges for that purpose because there's just
Speaker 1: so much confusion there is.
Speaker 3: And you know, hydrangeas are a special case because you
Speaker 3: talk about hydrangeys as a monolith. They're all hydranges, but
Speaker 3: when it comes to pruning, there are different guidelines for
Speaker 3: the different types of hydrangs. And even though you love
Speaker 3: them all together at the garden center, even though you
Speaker 3: might say I love hydranges and mean all of the
Speaker 3: hydranges that we grow in our gardens, when it comes
Speaker 3: to pruning that it's not a one size fits all approach,
Speaker 3: and that is a little bit different than pretty much
Speaker 3: any other group of plants. But once you have understood
Speaker 3: sort of that key difference, it all kind of falls
Speaker 3: into place, I think. But yeah, you do need to
Speaker 3: know what you're doing. Again, if you don't know what
Speaker 3: you're doing, you can't do any of the following steps.
Speaker 3: You just can't do it because you don't know how
Speaker 3: much to cut off. You don't know when you should
Speaker 3: be pruning it. You know, it's so important, and I
Speaker 3: think so many people again they prune because they think
Speaker 3: they should not because they have a specific goal in minds.
Speaker 1: At the same time, there's real benefit in pruning. So
Speaker 1: when we use the example of hydranges, there's benefit to pruning,
Speaker 1: for example a smooth hydrangea or a panicled hydrangea, and
Speaker 1: so learning the difference between the hydranges is important. Another
Speaker 1: one that we get asked about a lot this time
Speaker 1: of the year, staceye is bud lea. And again, give
Speaker 1: the plants a chance to start up in spring before
Speaker 1: we start hacking away, and then make a decision that's
Speaker 1: based on why. And with a bud lea, many times
Speaker 1: they'll bloom better if you do a good pruning, but
Speaker 1: you don't have to do it right away.
Speaker 3: Right Just because you're pruning everything else in your garden
Speaker 3: at a specific time doesn't mean that that is when
Speaker 3: you should prune the budlia. And yeah, I do always
Speaker 3: recommend to people. Budley is especially hard because on some plants,
Speaker 3: when you're pruning, you can very clearly see where the
Speaker 3: leaves are emerging or will emerge. Those buds are very clear.
Speaker 3: On a budlia, it's not necessarily so clear, especially on
Speaker 3: the main trunk. I remember this is something I encountered,
Speaker 3: like in my first week of horticulture school, and they
Speaker 3: were like, prune this budley, and I was like, God,
Speaker 3: I don't know what to do because you can't see
Speaker 3: you know where the growth is going to come from.
Speaker 2: So you can always wait. You know, if you give.
Speaker 3: Yourself time to wait, you can research it, you can
Speaker 3: reach out to proven winners and we will help you
Speaker 3: with that decision. There's lots of other ways. That's why
Speaker 3: I always say when it comes to pruning, when end doubt, don't.
Speaker 1: Agree, and I always say that try as much as possible.
Speaker 1: If you need to prune, do it after blooming. Obviously
Speaker 1: not before pruning, particularly with spring blooming plants. I like
Speaker 1: dormant pruning because you get a good look at the
Speaker 1: shape of the tree or the plant that you're pruning.
Speaker 1: And you also prune to open up a canopy. It
Speaker 1: allows more light into the canopy of the plant, and
Speaker 1: it allows air movement. So again, many different reasons to prune.
Speaker 1: And we're going to move this conversation into segment four
Speaker 1: because there's so much to talk.
Speaker 3: About it, as I think we're pruning in every segment
Speaker 3: today standing and maybe not every question in mailbag, Plants
Speaker 3: and trial definitely about pruning. At least one question in
Speaker 3: mail bag very much about pruning, as well as a
Speaker 3: little bit of relationship advice that I think we're going
Speaker 3: to have to excellently to keep the peace there.
Speaker 1: But I love that because again you talk about lavender
Speaker 1: or things like tomatoes or flowering shrubs, there are so
Speaker 1: many pruning rules and things that can apply. I'll end
Speaker 1: this segment with a pruning limerick. I wrote for you
Speaker 1: that shrub in my yard is ballooning. It needs some
Speaker 1: serious grooming. Just how do I decide my spouse is petrified?
Speaker 1: I'm holding a shears and assuming the fallout may be stark.
Speaker 1: If I cut and miss my mark, it's a pruning job, gaff.
Speaker 1: Everybody's gonna laugh. Maybe I'll wait until after dark. It's
Speaker 1: just gonna ramble on. I'll shape it to a palm palm.
Speaker 1: Maybe no one will notice I've hacked my stephan notice
Speaker 1: by morning light, I'll be gone. There's an approach plants
Speaker 1: on trial coming up next here on the Gardening Simplified Ship.
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Speaker 3: shrubs with over three hundred and twenty five unique varieties
Speaker 3: to choose from. There's a flowering shrubber ever Green for
Speaker 3: every taste and every space. Just look for the distinctive
Speaker 3: white container your local garden center or learn more at
Speaker 3: proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. Reading's gardening friends, and
Speaker 3: welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. Where it is spring.
Speaker 3: It is in full swing. The weather is maybe kind
Speaker 3: of sort of starting to cooperate here in Michigan and
Speaker 3: feel a little bit springy, although I have to say
Speaker 3: it has not really stopped people from working in their
Speaker 3: yards too much. I've seen a lot of people out
Speaker 3: there shivering, but I'm out there, but out there I've
Speaker 3: been out there a little bit doing all the perennial
Speaker 3: cutback and all of that jazz. But of course, I
Speaker 3: you know, I like to leave my perennials as long
Speaker 3: as I can. I don't want to wait too long
Speaker 3: because then everything starts coming up, and then you're stepping
Speaker 3: on all this soft and tender greenery as you're trying
Speaker 3: to take out your perennials. But of course I do
Speaker 3: know that a lot of insects and so forth are
Speaker 3: burrowing in there and waiting for their opportunity to emerge.
Speaker 3: And our conversation with Mike from Honeytree Nursery the other
Speaker 3: week definitely inspired me to make sure I'm protecting all
Speaker 3: those little guys. So I just pile everything up into
Speaker 3: a big cut off plant, part burrito burrito for a
Speaker 3: couple of weeks until they emerge. But yes, I have
Speaker 3: been out there, and I know a lot of people
Speaker 3: start to wonder about pruning. And if you have like
Speaker 3: a mixed border like I have, and you have where
Speaker 3: you have a mix of shrubs and perennials, it's really
Speaker 3: easy to just get in there and prune and prune
Speaker 3: and prune and prune, and then you're like, oh, crud,
Speaker 3: that didn't feel the same way. I don't think that
Speaker 3: was a perennial. I just cut one of my shrubs.
Speaker 2: You know that that happens.
Speaker 1: Can make that mistake. You know what drives me crazy
Speaker 1: is when I go through a neighborhood weeping trees. Weeping
Speaker 1: trees do not prune those things to look like it's
Speaker 1: the beetle's haircut from the nineteen sixties. You see them everywhere,
Speaker 1: a nice weeping cherry or something like that, and it
Speaker 1: looks like the beetles stepping off the airplane in New
Speaker 1: York in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 3: You've seen those, Oh I have seen them too many times.
Speaker 1: Oh man, Yeah, it's.
Speaker 3: You know, it's so unfortunate because those plants could be
Speaker 3: so cool. You know, there's nothing wrong with having a
Speaker 3: weeping plant that covers the trunk completely and makes a magical,
Speaker 3: unique little space in there instead of yeah, the the
Speaker 3: Dutch boy Bob there, you know, like the Bob haircut.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that's why do you have a weeping tree
Speaker 3: if you're going to just give it that silly little haircut.
Speaker 1: Well, I think again, it comes down to the fact,
Speaker 1: like I said in the first segment taking the approach
Speaker 1: where you treat everything the same and cut it straight across,
Speaker 1: like when I was a kid and my mom would
Speaker 1: put a pan on my head and yeah, exactly right,
Speaker 1: because I've got pictures. Not going to show them to you,
Speaker 1: but I got pictures.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So lots going on right now with the pruning. And
Speaker 3: of course, so today's Plant on Trial did have to
Speaker 3: speak to this issue of pruning. And today's Plant on
Speaker 3: Tree Trial is perfected Mundo double purple reblooming azalea.
Speaker 1: Interesting, but I'm glad you're bringing up the reblooming topic.
Speaker 3: That's exactly it now, I will say right off the bat,
Speaker 3: you know, I wouldn't spend a whole whole lot of
Speaker 3: time talking about the perfected Mundo azaleas.
Speaker 2: Even though I love them.
Speaker 3: They're absolutely gorgeous, they aren't exactly hearty for us here
Speaker 3: in Michigan, out here in West Michigan. They do survive,
Speaker 3: but typically what happens is the winter was harsh enough
Speaker 3: that the plant lives, but the spring flower buds got
Speaker 3: you know, hit by all that ice. So you're kind
Speaker 3: of like, what is this thing doing when it's not
Speaker 3: even going to flower? But This is a reblooming azalea,
Speaker 3: and reblooming azaleas are very much a thing, but that
Speaker 3: surprises a lot of Midwestern gardeners because we don't have
Speaker 3: them here. All of the genetics that imbue that reblooming
Speaker 3: ability belong to species of azaleas that are much more
Speaker 3: tender than can grow in these climates. So Ever, since
Speaker 3: the first reblooming azalea was introduced, you know, twenty or
Speaker 3: so years ago, they have been largely considered warm climate plants.
Speaker 3: I would say, like mid Atlantic, say Virginia on down
Speaker 3: all the way through the South, You'll have no problem
Speaker 3: growing them down there. But I'm bringing this plant up
Speaker 3: because it is a great example of what it means
Speaker 3: to be a reblooming plant and how you prune reblooming shrubs.
Speaker 3: And we have a lot of reblooming shrubs, so there
Speaker 3: was a lot that I could have chosen, a lot
Speaker 3: of them that I've already covered. We've got our bloomerang,
Speaker 3: reblooming lilacs, we have got our sonic bloom whigela, and
Speaker 3: of course we have these perfected window azaleas. So reblooming plants,
Speaker 3: as the name implies, bloom alongside their conventional counterparts. So
Speaker 3: in the case of the perfected window azaleas, they are
Speaker 3: going to bloom in spring when other non reblooming azaleas.
Speaker 3: What In the case of the sonic bloom wigela, they're
Speaker 3: going to bloom in late spring when other Whyjeela do
Speaker 3: bloomerang lilac blooming in about mid May just like other ones.
Speaker 2: And all of that.
Speaker 3: First bloom on these reblooming plants is on what is
Speaker 3: known as old wood. Now I see a lot of
Speaker 3: people online get really confused by this. Every plant has
Speaker 3: old wood. It's just wood that was created in the
Speaker 3: previous season or several previous seasons before. But the question
Speaker 3: is not whether the plant has old wood. The question
Speaker 3: is where does it set the flower buds. And generally speaking,
Speaker 3: the earlier a plant flowers in spring, the more likely
Speaker 3: it is to have created those buds the previous season.
Speaker 3: Because you know, think about it when I said this
Speaker 3: when we had show off Forcythia's our plants on trial
Speaker 3: a few weeks ago. You know, right now, the weather's
Speaker 3: still quite cool. The plant would not nearly have enough
Speaker 3: time in Michigan to create flower buds to open in
Speaker 3: a few weeks. Instead, they're making them last summer, overwintering
Speaker 3: them and then opening them as soon as the going
Speaker 3: gets good in spring. So that's what it means to
Speaker 3: flowers on old wood. The flower buds were created on
Speaker 3: the wood from last year and stacey.
Speaker 1: Perfect examples would be like lilac or magnoli or as yep.
Speaker 3: Definitely those earlier it blooms, the more likely it bloomed
Speaker 3: on oldwood. But the difference with re blooming shrubs is
Speaker 3: that they bloom on oldwood with those other ones, but
Speaker 3: they also have the ability to bloom on new wood.
Speaker 3: And plants that bloom on new wood. Basically, what that
Speaker 3: means they didn't have any flower buds on them over winter.
Speaker 3: Once the going gets good in spring and they start
Speaker 3: leafing out and growing, then they create their flower buds
Speaker 3: for that same season. So examples of some shrubs at
Speaker 3: flower on new wood. Roses are a great example. Roses
Speaker 3: flower on Newood's why you're able to prune them in
Speaker 3: spring and they'll go on to bloom by about June.
Speaker 3: Panicle and smooth hydranges of course also bloom on new wood.
Speaker 3: So again this type no flower buds through the winter,
Speaker 3: and once it gets nice in spring they'll actually set
Speaker 3: those flower buds. Reblooming shrubs do both, and so what
Speaker 3: that means for pruning is that if you want to
Speaker 3: prune them, you're going to do so immediately after that
Speaker 3: spring bloom. And pruning them accomplishes a couple of different things.
Speaker 3: So number one, it will take away any seed that
Speaker 3: might have formed. This isn't usually a huge issue, certainly
Speaker 3: not on the azaleas. You're not going to get a
Speaker 3: lot of seed production, but it's one of the reasons
Speaker 3: why I do recommend doing this on bloomerang lilac because
Speaker 3: they do quite a lot of seed, and then that's
Speaker 3: just the plant putting a lot of energy into maturing
Speaker 3: seed that you don't want and probably won't even grow anyway.
Speaker 3: So it kind of refreshes them, reshapes them. And the
Speaker 3: key to reblooming shrubs reblooming well is that they have
Speaker 3: to put on a lot of new growth in between
Speaker 3: those two bloom times. And when you prune something and
Speaker 3: I know, record you've got this on tap for later today,
Speaker 3: When you prune a shrub branch and you take off
Speaker 3: that tip, that tip has it's like a hormone factory.
Speaker 3: That's just producing these growth suppressing hormones for all of
Speaker 3: the leaf buds below it. So if you don't prune it,
Speaker 3: you've got one stem growing up all season long. If
Speaker 3: you prune it, now all of a sudden, all of
Speaker 3: those lower buds are released, and now you have six
Speaker 3: or eight or more growth points from that same branch.
Speaker 3: And now instead of just having one branch that's going
Speaker 3: to produce a flower cluster, now you have six or eight.
Speaker 3: So you're increasing the amount of growth that can set
Speaker 3: these new wood flower buds. And when you prune a plant,
Speaker 3: especially if it is established, you are actually going to
Speaker 3: encourage it to regrow because it has all the energy
Speaker 3: of its root system down below to recover from that pruning.
Speaker 3: So those two things combined mean the plant is going
Speaker 3: to put on a lot of new growth. And the
Speaker 3: more new growth that plant puts on in that window
Speaker 3: of time, the better your rebloom is going to be.
Speaker 3: So this is a case where pruning is not necessary,
Speaker 3: but it definitely is beneficial. And it's a situation too
Speaker 3: where if you don't have time or you forget to
Speaker 3: do it, not the end of the world, but if
Speaker 3: you really want the best from your plant, this is
Speaker 3: a very easy practice. It helps to keep the plant
Speaker 3: in control, keep it having that nice tidy look that
Speaker 3: people like, and you're just going to get the best
Speaker 3: flower set as well.
Speaker 1: And the benefit you have here is you're suggesting Stacy
Speaker 1: to prune in spring after it's done blooming, and that's
Speaker 1: what we're going to do with the spring bloomers anyhow,
Speaker 1: that's when we should be pruning them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so a lot of people get confused, Oh, I
Speaker 3: don't want to mess up the rebloom. Now, if you
Speaker 3: don't prune these reblooming shrubs, you will actually get them
Speaker 3: to rebloom a little bit sooner. The pruning does delay
Speaker 3: that rebloom by a few weeks, but in my experience,
Speaker 3: it is more than worth it, yep, the amount of
Speaker 3: flowers that you get and the longevity of that rebloom
Speaker 3: because it doesn't kind of gas out, you know, in
Speaker 3: a few weeks, it's gonna by the time it recovers
Speaker 3: from the pruning, the days are getting a lot shorter,
Speaker 3: the nights are getting longer, it's getting a little bit cooler,
Speaker 3: and that will help the rebloom really bring it home
Speaker 3: and look its best. Absolutely, So all of that for
Speaker 3: perfective Mundo double purple reblooming azalea, but also, like I said,
Speaker 3: a stand in for whatever reblooming shrub that you might have.
Speaker 3: And we have a lot, but there are other ones
Speaker 3: out there on the market. And you know, this is
Speaker 3: an important breeding goal for us because who doesn't want
Speaker 3: more flowers?
Speaker 1: Correct, it's fabulous and and the number of cultivars now
Speaker 1: that are available, it's stunning to me. I mean, the
Speaker 1: benefit is fabulous.
Speaker 3: If you're going out shopping this season looking for some
Speaker 3: new shrubs, definitely consider some of these reblooming shrubs. And
Speaker 3: now you know how to take care of them, and
Speaker 3: you know it's dead simple, so you are set to
Speaker 3: go for the season. Of course, visit your local garden
Speaker 3: center for perfect Mundo double purple or any Proof and
Speaker 3: Winners reblooming shrubs or evergreens or any of our flowering shrubs.
Speaker 3: We're gonna take a little break. When we come back,
Speaker 3: We've got the garden mail bags, so please stay tuned
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Speaker 3: better landscape starts with a better shrub. Our team of
Speaker 3: experts tests and evaluates all of our flowering shrubs in evergreens,
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Speaker 3: Choice dot com. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to
Speaker 3: the Gardening Simplified shoe. Word is our pleasure to help
Speaker 3: you with your gardening questions, quandaries and conundrums, and if
Speaker 3: you have one of those, you can reach out to
Speaker 3: us at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. There's a contact
Speaker 3: tab there, But of course I know at this time
Speaker 3: of the year, especially time is of the essence, you
Speaker 3: don't always have time to wait for us to get
Speaker 3: to your question. So I know that you can also
Speaker 3: reach out to proven Winters dot com or proven Winters
Speaker 3: color Choice dot com if it is a shrub question,
Speaker 3: and you will get a personalized answer from a wonderful
Speaker 3: horticulturist who will be happy to help you in a
Speaker 3: more timely manner than we can here in our once
Speaker 3: a week show. But we do have a lot of
Speaker 3: good questions and I tried to pick some questions that
Speaker 3: I think are relevant to everybody at this time of year.
Speaker 2: So what we gott in mambag.
Speaker 1: Raven writes, my pencil hollies were doing great all winter.
Speaker 1: We had a little browning, but then a cold snap.
Speaker 1: These containers are in my driveway get a lot of wind.
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if too much wind, not enough root protection,
Speaker 1: not enough water, or all of the above. This will
Speaker 1: be the third year that they have been there, and Stacy,
Speaker 1: I don't know where Raven lives, but the third year,
Speaker 1: at least here in the north. The last two winters
Speaker 1: have kind of been outliers. They have not you know,
Speaker 1: this has been a tough winter, but the two previous.
Speaker 1: So to get a little bit of browning on a
Speaker 1: pencil holly, I don't think is unusual.
Speaker 3: Right, So I think a lot of people are seeing
Speaker 3: something very similar to what Raven is seeing on our
Speaker 3: pencil hollies. So if you're not familiar with them, pencil
Speaker 3: hollies are a broad leaf evergreen, not a needle leafed evergreen.
Speaker 3: And as we've talked about before, broad leaf evergreen so
Speaker 3: basically leaves that are not like a reduced scale on
Speaker 3: like a juniper, or a needle like on a pine
Speaker 3: or a spruce. These are much more susceptible to winter
Speaker 3: damage because they have that big broad leaf that all
Speaker 3: winter long, the sun is taking effect on it and
Speaker 3: it's taking water away. Wind is taking effect on it,
Speaker 3: and it is taking water away. And if you live
Speaker 3: in a cold climate, and the ground or the container media,
Speaker 3: because these are in containers, and of course there'll be
Speaker 3: pictures of Raven's hollies on the YouTube version as well
Speaker 3: as in the show notes. You know, they they can't
Speaker 3: take up water once that soil is frozen, so they're
Speaker 3: losing a bunch of water. They're not replacing the water.
Speaker 3: They can't replace the water, and as a result, these
Speaker 3: plants do tend to brown. And I think you have
Speaker 3: a great point, Rick, if this didn't happen previous years
Speaker 3: we have had more mild winters. But there are also
Speaker 3: are a combination of factors that will help prevent this
Speaker 3: from happening. So mulch is a huge one. Definitely recommend
Speaker 3: a good two to three inch layer of shreaded bark
Speaker 3: mulch over the plant. Really all times of the year.
Speaker 3: It will be happy, but it's especially crucial in winter,
Speaker 3: and then making sure that the plant doesn't go dormant thirsty.
Speaker 3: Don't send it off to bed thirsty. Make sure that
Speaker 3: even if that means giving it a little water like
Speaker 3: Thanksgiving weekend or late in the season like that, it
Speaker 3: needs to be well high rated when it goes into
Speaker 3: the winter or else this browning will occur. So really
Speaker 3: it's pretty minor on Ravens pencil hollies. But I have
Speaker 3: to say, once you see this kind of browning, it's
Speaker 3: not going to come back. That growth is not going
Speaker 3: to magically turn green. What can happen if the damage
Speaker 3: wasn't super severe is that even though they are evergreen,
Speaker 3: so they will drop those leaves and replace them with
Speaker 3: fresh growth. So I don't necessarily recommend that you run
Speaker 3: out there right away and start pruning off the brown
Speaker 3: growth unless it's absolutely driving you crazy and it wasn't
Speaker 3: too severe. You know, there's enough of the plant remaining
Speaker 3: that it's going to be able to survive and recover
Speaker 3: if you can wait to see if it comes out enough.
Speaker 3: You know, if the stem itself is very brown and withered,
Speaker 3: it's probably done and you can just go ahead and
Speaker 3: prune it but really, yeah, there's not that much that
Speaker 3: you can do in these situations except to remove it
Speaker 3: and then try your best to make sure that it
Speaker 3: doesn't happen in the future.
Speaker 2: This can happen.
Speaker 3: This happens really commonly with boxwoods. If you ever go
Speaker 3: to like any city in March, it's like brown boxwood City,
Speaker 3: you know, because so many people love them for like
Speaker 3: restaurants and that kind of thing. And you know, Raven,
Speaker 3: I've also found in my yard in the middle of winter,
Speaker 3: things might look totally fine, but then when spring comes along,
Speaker 3: that's when all of a sudden, that damn is just like, wait,
Speaker 3: where did that come from?
Speaker 1: Well, and part of it is because it's not just
Speaker 1: wind damage, it's sun damage and winter also when the
Speaker 1: sun is low in the south, and so boxwood or
Speaker 1: pencil holly's that are on the north side of a
Speaker 1: house or the east side of the house that gets
Speaker 1: some structural shade tend to do better. If you're going
Speaker 1: to continue to grow these, maybe consider an anti desicate
Speaker 1: spray in fall on these plants. It's going to help.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good idea too. That definitely helps to
Speaker 3: prevent further water vapor from escaping the leaves.
Speaker 1: So you have a letter from Jamie and some pictures.
Speaker 3: Yes, so Jamie, you know, I wanted to answer her
Speaker 3: question because this is great. This is something that again
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people are dealing with. And
Speaker 3: also I don't want Jamie's relationship to be risked.
Speaker 1: Exactly. I love this note, I really do. And I
Speaker 1: have some advice for the boyfriend and the uncle.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, okay.
Speaker 3: So Jamie says, Hi there, I have a limelight hydrangea
Speaker 3: that's about ten years old. I've never proved it, and
Speaker 3: my boyfriend been very happy with how it performs each year.
Speaker 3: I did a hard prune after a lot of research.
Speaker 3: Good for you, Jamie, Yeah, to go read me, she said.
Speaker 3: I did not wing it.
Speaker 2: I swear. She said.
Speaker 3: I wanted to correct small crossing branches. Plus it was
Speaker 3: getting too close to the house and it needed a refresh.
Speaker 3: So she had her reasons all in place.
Speaker 2: Smart, very good.
Speaker 3: Why she was pruning the limelight, she said, So he
Speaker 3: was fine with it how it was. I'm concerned now
Speaker 3: that I'm messed up and it will not bloom as
Speaker 3: my boyfriend and his uncle, who is a landscaper, said
Speaker 3: it will be sticks all year and not bloom sat
Speaker 3: crying face emoji. If that's the case, I will be
Speaker 3: so devastated that I ruined a plant that he loved
Speaker 3: and it produced. Well, here's a before and after. Could
Speaker 3: you give me insight on how you would have pruned
Speaker 3: it and if I messed things up? But if all
Speaker 3: does look well, can I expect to see blooms this
Speaker 3: year and a healthy, refreshed shrub.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, you're going to see it. Way to go, Jamie.
Speaker 1: I am so proud of you. You executed entremneurial savvy.
Speaker 1: Tell your boyfriend you're a genius. It's all going to
Speaker 1: work out, and you know, as Al Harris said in
Speaker 1: Apollo thirteen, I think this will be your finest hour.
Speaker 1: I think it, you know. And as far as your
Speaker 1: uncle is concerned, again, Stacy, you guys have done so
Speaker 1: much work on Hydrange's demystified. I would refer your uncle
Speaker 1: to those articles or websites.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I can't understand where they're coming from,
Speaker 3: because if you look at the before and afters of
Speaker 3: Jamie's Limelight Hydrangea, it was definitely really big and she
Speaker 3: reduced it quite a lot, and so it is a
Speaker 3: huge difference, and that is obviously a shock in and
Speaker 3: of itself after you've done that. So yeah, people might
Speaker 3: be a little bit dubious, but pannicle hydrangels can absolutely
Speaker 3: handle this and it will absolutely recover and grow well
Speaker 3: and it will bloom this year. Now, I do want
Speaker 3: to caution you about one thing though, because this is
Speaker 3: likely to happen. I've seen it happen, especially with limelight,
Speaker 3: plenty of times. If a mature limelight gets pruned really
Speaker 3: hard like this one did, what often happens that first
Speaker 3: year after the pruning is it shoots up tons of branches.
Speaker 3: So I've used this analogy many times on the show.
Speaker 3: When you have an established plant like this, the root
Speaker 3: system is basically an engine to fire growth. And when
Speaker 3: you have reduced you know, the plant that it was
Speaker 3: that it was fueling, Now all of a sudden you
Speaker 3: have like, you know, a five point zero liter engine
Speaker 3: in like an escort, a Ford escort, you know, something
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 1: So it's a good analogy really.
Speaker 3: So you have a small plant but a big engine,
Speaker 3: and so as a result, what the plant wants to
Speaker 3: do is put all of that energy into recovering from
Speaker 3: this pruning. So what can happen a lot is that
Speaker 3: it will put out really long stems with huge flowers,
Speaker 3: like insanely huge flowers, and that can make those stems
Speaker 3: a little bit floppy because the flower is so big.
Speaker 3: But this is a temporary thing. It's only going to
Speaker 3: happen this year, and as the plant starts to build
Speaker 3: up sort of a new you know, structure exactly, it
Speaker 3: will be totally fine. And yeah, these big flowers are
Speaker 3: really amazing to see. It's it's actually kind of a
Speaker 3: fun thing to watch.
Speaker 1: It is really cool and I love that analogy. And Stacey,
Speaker 1: the important thing for people tuned in or watching on
Speaker 1: YouTube is to go back to the previous segment and
Speaker 1: your conversation about plants that bloom on new wood. Yes,
Speaker 1: and that's what we have going here, right. That's so
Speaker 1: Jamie's going to be fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm Jamie. You're going to be fine. You will
Speaker 3: have the last laugh. The flowers will be big, and
Speaker 3: if you like to do things with you know, big
Speaker 3: dried or fresh limelight flowers, you are going to be
Speaker 3: in heaven.
Speaker 2: But yeah, don't worry.
Speaker 3: You didn't do any permanent damage to your beautiful limelight
Speaker 3: and you can tell your boyfriend and uncle to call us.
Speaker 3: We'll yeah, if they don't believe it, we will with it.
Speaker 3: So thank you both so much for your questions. We're
Speaker 3: going to take a little break and then we're gonna
Speaker 3: come back and we're going to keep talking about pruning.
Speaker 2: So please stay tuned.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to the Gardening Simplified Podcast, brought to
Speaker 3: you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning
Speaker 3: flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and tested by experts
Speaker 3: with your success in mind. Learn more at Proven Winners
Speaker 3: color Choice dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where today we
Speaker 1: are on the cutting hedge. We're talking pruning, Stacy. I
Speaker 1: was thinking cutting your grass in spring is a form
Speaker 1: of pruning and you get those I think they call
Speaker 1: them glv's and I have it right here, green leaf volatiles.
Speaker 1: Which is that aroma you get when you cut the grass.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's yeah.
Speaker 1: I used to have a fresh mowing grass cologne that
Speaker 1: I would like that. Yeah, I had to get rid
Speaker 1: of it. I was getting looks when I would grow up.
Speaker 1: But you know, as it as it relates to pruning,
Speaker 1: people tend to ignore trees until there's a problem like
Speaker 1: a storm. Pruning super important in trees again, opening up
Speaker 1: the canopy, taking care of problem limbs. We prune all
Speaker 1: kinds of stuff when we garden tomatoes. When you look
Speaker 1: at an indeterminate tomato, a tomato that doesn't set a
Speaker 1: terminal bud, pruning indeterminate tomato so the plant puts more
Speaker 1: energy into the fruit. We allow more light into that plant,
Speaker 1: better air movement. I personally believe that that's really really important,
Speaker 1: and it's something that we haven't talked about yet today, Stacey,
Speaker 1: but that would be for people to look up or
Speaker 1: to understand. Terminology called apical dominance.
Speaker 2: Correct very very important.
Speaker 1: And so if a plant again is producing that bud
Speaker 1: at the tip, once you prune it back, as you noted,
Speaker 1: it's going to force some outward growth.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: And that's something that we call apical dominance. So you know,
Speaker 1: a pinch to grow an inch. As far as annuals
Speaker 1: are concerned, I love pinching annuals perennials, cutting them back,
Speaker 1: and don't cut back perennials in the growing season too soon.
Speaker 1: Maybe the plant is done blooming like a peony. But
Speaker 1: if the plant is healthy. Again, remember the foliage is
Speaker 1: absorbing sunlight the process of photosynthesis, you're going to have
Speaker 1: a healthier plant as opposed to just because it's herbaceous,
Speaker 1: hacking it to the.
Speaker 2: Ground, right for sure.
Speaker 3: Perennials are definitely a plant that you know you can
Speaker 3: cut off any dead parts in spring, but after that
Speaker 3: you usually don't want to be pruning them unless you're
Speaker 3: doing something like a lot of people will pinch flocks
Speaker 3: yep to keep it shorter and stronger, these summer flocks.
Speaker 3: The Chelsea chop yep, famous Chelsea chop of course, Mom's
Speaker 3: classic choice for people to pinch in you And I've
Speaker 3: mentioned this on the show before, but you know, I
Speaker 3: know books are kind of like going out of style.
Speaker 3: People don't really invest a lot in books, even gardening
Speaker 3: books anymore, because I just figure you can find it
Speaker 3: all online. If you are going to invest in a
Speaker 3: single gardening book for your library, it should absolutely be
Speaker 3: The Well Tended Perennial Garden by Tracy Di Sabado Oust.
Speaker 3: If you have perennials. Of course, if you don't have perennials,
Speaker 3: this book we'll do you no good. But if you
Speaker 3: do have perennials. Honestly, this book is amazing. You will
Speaker 3: learn so much. And she spent years literally pinching and
Speaker 3: pruning every plant in her garden at different times, recording
Speaker 3: all of the results. And the cool thing about implementing
Speaker 3: her techniques and findings is you can actually completely change
Speaker 3: your garden. You can delay bloom times so different things
Speaker 3: will bloom together, and you can eliminate the need for
Speaker 3: staking on some things because when you prune them again,
Speaker 3: the plant has all that energy of its root system,
Speaker 3: and if it's putting it into less of the plant,
Speaker 3: what will typically happen, especially with perennials, is everything just
Speaker 3: gets beefier stockier. Chuck, So that is such a good
Speaker 3: book and we'll give you so many great ideas on
Speaker 3: how to maintain your garden. That is like the pruners
Speaker 3: the Perennial Pruner's Manual of Love that book.
Speaker 1: And upright setums are another.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah for sure, Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So that's a great way to go. Look up
Speaker 1: Chelsea Chop also bulbs, cutting them back, tulip, staffodils, these
Speaker 1: various plants when they're done blooming, leave the foliage on
Speaker 1: for a little while and allow that photosynthesis to take
Speaker 1: place with the bulbs before cutting them back, you can
Speaker 1: plant annuals in between and get them off to a start.
Speaker 1: House plants, The best time to prune houseplants, I believe
Speaker 1: is in spring, when there's plenty of light to fuel
Speaker 1: recovery new growth, and you can take them outside if
Speaker 1: you live in a cold climate, So houseplants in spring vines,
Speaker 1: many vines benefit from root pruning if we look at
Speaker 1: with sterias or trumpet vines again showing that vine whose
Speaker 1: boss may get the plant to produce some blooms in
Speaker 1: lieu of producing even more growth.
Speaker 3: Yeah, some people do claim that on wisteria, which of
Speaker 3: course can be notoriously hesitant to flower, and definitely as
Speaker 3: a plant that can appreciate some restricted root room. But
Speaker 3: mostly I find that wassteria needs to have its its
Speaker 3: length controlled. Yes, you know, because it just wants to
Speaker 3: grow and grow and grow, and like, yeah, I don't
Speaker 3: need to produce any flowers. I'm I'm good, gotta show
Speaker 3: it exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course questions about grapes. With grapes don't be timid.
Speaker 1: We prune them in the dorm late dormant season January
Speaker 1: to March cane and spur pruning, pruning bramble fruits. It's
Speaker 1: important to understand that essentially they're going to fruit on
Speaker 1: canes that live for two years. The roots and the
Speaker 1: crowns are perennial, so you get the new canes and
Speaker 1: then you get the second you canes called the floracanes.
Speaker 1: Those are the ones that are going to produce the fruit,
Speaker 1: and those are the ones that we're going to prune
Speaker 1: back hard after they've fruited. So spring is a time
Speaker 1: to do a lot of your pruning. But again you
Speaker 1: have to apply these principles as Stacey basically of timing
Speaker 1: is everything, as we've discussed today, And some people would say, well, okay,
Speaker 1: but what about the evergreens. Well, yeah, you know, there
Speaker 1: are evergreens like ewes or taxes or boxwood that people
Speaker 1: traditionally prune into shapes and you could prune pretty much
Speaker 1: anytime you wanted to, whereas other evergreens or conifers, it
Speaker 1: is easy to make a pruning mistake. And here's where
Speaker 1: I apply Stacy's rule. Don't I mean, would you agree
Speaker 1: that if you prune a conifer and you do it
Speaker 1: wrong Stacey, that it's gonna take a long time, if ever,
Speaker 1: for it to recover.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can definitely screw things up pretty badly. But
Speaker 3: that said, you know, I do want to say when
Speaker 3: when we're talking about something like that. First of all,
Speaker 3: always if it's a safety issue, please put the plant
Speaker 3: health out out the window. Don't worry about when is
Speaker 3: the best time to do X, y or z. If
Speaker 3: a branch is dangling or threatened to dangle, or something's growing,
Speaker 3: you know, like a like a rose or something growing
Speaker 3: into your front walkway and the mailman's getting caught on
Speaker 3: it every time they walk up to your house, just
Speaker 3: cut that thing back, don't you know. Let's do safety first.
Speaker 3: But the other thing is also if you're taking out
Speaker 3: entire branches of a tree, that's also a different situation
Speaker 3: than when you're just cutting into.
Speaker 2: The actual growth.
Speaker 3: Yes, but you know, generally speaking, yeah, people should not
Speaker 3: assume that that more doing more is better for the plant.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 3: It's not necessarily that it is extremely complicated or extremely mystifying,
Speaker 3: as we might imply with hydrange is demystified, but that
Speaker 3: you know, you need to know the consequences of those
Speaker 3: actions and how it's going to affect the plant. And
Speaker 3: you know sometimes that you just need to do a
Speaker 3: little research first and not go out there and be
Speaker 3: in the moment and just keep pruning and then go
Speaker 3: what have I done?
Speaker 2: Don't don't do that.
Speaker 1: That's exactly it. The landscape evergreens of course, like I mentioned, hemlocks,
Speaker 1: box would arbor viti use. I think summer is a
Speaker 1: good time to do that, or early summer it's going
Speaker 1: to stimulate some new growth. Don't do it just before winter.
Speaker 1: You're going to get some die back at that point.
Speaker 1: So I really believe early summer on those, if they
Speaker 1: need some shaping, would be the time to do it,
Speaker 1: and then stay see a lot of confusion with people
Speaker 1: on clematis or clematists, however we want to pronounce it
Speaker 1: because people people will read about group one, group two,
Speaker 1: group three, clematis get totally confused. It's part of the
Speaker 1: reason I love cultivars like Happy Jack or Sweet Summer
Speaker 1: Love because essentially with them you cut them back to
Speaker 1: about two or three feet above the ground in spring
Speaker 1: when everything's looking dead yet and just step back and enjoy.
Speaker 1: I mean it's amazing, Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 3: And you know, it's a great example of what I
Speaker 3: was saying about the root mass functioning as an engine
Speaker 3: to grow, because people might say, well, geez my, you know,
Speaker 3: Sweet Summer Love Clemenis was twelve feet tall, twelve feet
Speaker 3: long last year. Now I'm going to cut it back
Speaker 3: to two feet. How is it going to get back
Speaker 3: to twelve feet? Well, again, it's the answer is in
Speaker 3: that root engine, and by cutting it back, you are
Speaker 3: basically resetting that growth point. If you didn't prune something
Speaker 3: like a Sweet Summer Love or Sweet Autumn Clemenist, what's
Speaker 3: going to happen is the growth is going to start
Speaker 3: from all of those buds that are way up on top,
Speaker 3: and eventually when it flowers, it's going to flower less
Speaker 3: and the flowers are going to be way up in
Speaker 3: the tree tops. So this is a case where pruning
Speaker 3: helps you to have the best look. And the thing
Speaker 3: about clematis is that as long as you leave something
Speaker 3: in the ground, you know something to grow. The worst
Speaker 3: it's going to happen is you get a year without flowers.
Speaker 3: So generally speaking, I would say I hear from a
Speaker 3: lot of people who don't know what group or what
Speaker 3: type of clematists they have, and they don't know what
Speaker 3: to do so when in doubt. If you can find
Speaker 3: a name, you can probably look that up. If you
Speaker 3: don't know, split the difference, do the two foot thing.
Speaker 3: If you have few to no flowers, well you know
Speaker 3: you have to prune a little lesser at a different
Speaker 3: time next year. But at least in that case, even
Speaker 3: though clemitis can be very sensitive, as long as you're
Speaker 3: leaving something for the plant to recover with a good
Speaker 3: two to three feet from the ground. Again, the worst
Speaker 3: it's going to happen no flowers, disappointing, but at least
Speaker 3: you didn't lose your plant.
Speaker 1: So on this topic today, to cut to the chase
Speaker 1: and sorry and the lawn and short of it is,
Speaker 1: people like Stacy and myself or other gardeners or garden
Speaker 1: center people or experts. This is an area where we
Speaker 1: do a lot of marital counseling. So educate yourself and
Speaker 1: try to work it out. Yes, because this has created
Speaker 1: a lot of upset through.
Speaker 2: The years, and it's only plans, and it's only plans.
Speaker 1: Thanks Stacy, it's been fun. Thank you, Thank you Adrianna,
Speaker 1: and thank you to you. Thanks for watching The Gardening
Speaker 1: Simplified Show on YouTube or listening on podcast or radio,
Speaker 1: have a great week,