Hi everybody this is Noelle from Petitti Garden Centers here in Oakwood
village and it's March and we've got a lot to do around the yard and the garden
and one of those things is pruning we're going to show you a couple of different
individual plants that we prune but I wanted to talk about pruning a little
bit before we start and the instruments that you really should have in your
arsenal for pruning first thing is usually a pair of hand shears or pruners
I use these quite often these shears bypass pruners are actually able to cut
about a half-inch up to about a half inch of diameter branching okay so again
these are for shrubs smaller jobs water sprouts what-have-you thinner branches
that you want to remove you can just use your hand shears the next size tool you
should have in your arsenal is usually a pair of loppers something that has a
longer handle larger cutting blades if you will most of your loppers can handle
anything usually about a half-inch up to about
two inches in plant diameter now that's what your loppers can handle when you
get a branch that's thicker than two inches in diameter you were talking
about pruning saws okay or larger ratcheting lappers something of that
nature that's really going to help you out in the long run so keep that in mind
the last pruning implement that you probably might have around are pruning
shears or hedge shears will usually hold off on shearing plant material at this
time just because when you start shearing something you're going to have to
continually do that year after year after year to maintain that shape so
we're gonna just start with the hand pruning for right now okay so when
you're going in and pruning shrubs specifically you're always looking to
remove the dead diseased damaged weak branches of that plant
if limbs are crossing absolutely take out the weaker of
those crossing limbs and you want to do that during dormant times and that's for
any shrub that we're talking about because when you're removing that
diseased or damaged area or weak area that's always going to benefit the shrub
growth in the long run and the health of the shrub in the long run so always
think about that first second thing when you're pruning shrubs is normally what
we're looking at is the overall structure of the shrub if there are long
branches or something that really throws off the natural shape of that plant
that's something else that you can remove right at this time of year
that'll help that plant again kind of open it up to more air and the overall
shape will be better third thing keep in mind is that your
spring blooming shrubs typically would want to bloom first right you don't want
to cut all the buds off and the blooms off before they get going so let them
bloom first and then go in and prune for shape and health okay so keep that in
mind but there is a plant that we just pruned and Taylor will show you some
b-roll on it it's a Weigela Weigelas are very common in our landscape
they're great hummingbird attracted a great deer resistant flowering landscape
plant we were pruning wine and roses Weigela now because they have gotten
so overgrown that we decided to do some rejuvenative pruning that means thinning
out oldest stems if you will so the thickest the least productive those
oldest stems and taking them down as low as you can possibly go to remove the
interior bulk of that plant so the plant is opened up to light and air
circulation it will look so much better when it starts blooming the spring after
it's done blooming we can go back shir off the the spud flowers but we can
also go back and hand prune for height and additional shape okay so what Jilla
is one of those flowering plants those spring flowering shrubs that you can do
some rejuvenative pruning thinning out the old stems to make it look even
better and produce even better for you Forsythia is one of those plants as
well lilac is one of those plants that normally we would say don't prune it
until after it's done blooming but in this case when they're really overgrown
very thick there's a lot of dead or damaged inside there we can take those
stems out while we can see them clearly and go ahead and remove those and then
that plants going to do great for us one other thing that I wanted to mention is
fertilizing after you're done pruning so you've cleaned that plant up you've
removed all of the the foliage leaves everything that was dead and detrital
material around that plant took out the stems that you needed to take out then
go ahead and remember to fertilize that plant so it can activate that new growth
so much better so that's pruning shrubs in a nutshell
we're also going to show you a Juniper that we pruned back and it's real easy
to see that that juniper has been sheared every year but that brand new
growth was kind of sticking out like feathers around that plant so all I did
was I took my hand pruner and I went through and I just trimmed
the feathers out at this time of year because that new growth is soft really
easy to remove and you can just take it down and kind of shape it like the rest
of the Juniper the one other plant that we do have is a daylily and I just
wanted to show you that daylilies in the spring are one of the easiest
perennial plants to clean up because all you have to do is literally take a rake
or your hand and just pull all the old stems the old foliage go ahead and clean
it up just pull it away from the plant make sure you're going to see those new
green leaves sprouting up and that plant once
it's clean is ready to go you can fertilize it and you didn't even have to
take any pruners or anything to it so again look out for that new growth on
your perennials because you want to remove anything that's old on that plant
so they can really start to flourish enjoy