Pruning – An Essential Part of Plant Care
Pruning is the selective removal of dead, dying or damaged plant parts including branches, buds, flowers, fruit and roots. It is an essential part of plant care that involves both soft-tissue (herbaceous) and woody plants like trees and shrubs. Pruning should be done on a regular basis to maintain a desirable appearance and improve a plant’s health. A few of the reasons to prune include improving structure, safety and quality of flowering or fruit production, and controlling size. It also helps repair storm damage, open vistas and provide clearance for structures or traffic. Some common pruning techniques include shearing shrubs into a defined shape, thinning or crown reducing evergreens to reduce density and allowing more sunlight to reach interior foliage, removing suckers from rootstock or within limbs, eliminating crossing or rubbing branches, and removing water sprouts from limbs. Different pruning goals require different pruning methods. For example, shearing shrubs into a defi...