Pruning can serve many purposes. It can keep a plant’s size in check, encourage flowering or fruiting, remove or deter pest and disease problems or help to improve the overall appearance of a plant by changing its shape.

First observe the natural shape of a plant and then prune the plant in a manner that will allow the natural form to continue to develop. Remove any excess growth that obscures the basic pattern of its natural form. When pruning to shape, make your cuts above a bud or side branch that points in the direction you’d like the new growth to take. Try to eliminate branches that cross and touch one another. Crossing branches may rub together, suffering injury, and are usually unattractive, especially in deciduous plants out of leaf. Also, be sure to prune out dead, diseased and damaged branches whenever they occur.

Flowering shrubs bloom either from new growth or from old wood, depending on the plant species. Before you prune, it is essential to determine its type of growth. This way, you can avoid inadvertently cutting out stems that would give you a flower display. Most spring flowering shrubs bloom from wood formed during the previous year. Be sure to wait until these plants have finished flowering before you prune them. Growth that the shrubs produce after flowering will provide blooms for the next year. Most summer flowering shrubs bloom on growth from the spring of the same year. These are the shrubs you can prune during the winter
dormant season without sacrificing the next crop of blooms.

As a general rule, if a shrub flowers after mid-summer, it should be pruned in early spring. If it flowers earlier in the year, pruning should be done immediately after flowering.

The objective of pruning is to produce strong, healthy, attractive plants. By understanding how, when and why to prune, and by following a few simple steps, you can achieve the desired look.  The are a few main reasons for pruning trees.

• Remove limbs that cross or are likely to break because of a weak angle
• Removing limbs that could fall and cause injury to yourself or a structure
• Removing branches that grow into utility lines
• Trimming brances that interfere with lines of sight
• For aesthetic purposes

Conifers may be pruned any time of year, but pruning during the dormant season may minimize sap and resin flow from cut branches. Hardwood trees and shrubs without showy flowers: prune in the dormant season to easily visualize the structure of the tree, to maximize wound closure in the growing season after pruning, to reduce the chance of transmitting disease, and to discourage excessive sap flow from wounds.  Usually, the best time is during late winter when the temperature is above freezing.  Flowering trees and shrubs: these should also be pruned during the dormant season for the same reasons stated above; however, to preserve the current year’s flower crop, prune according to the following schedule:

• Trees that flower in early spring—prune immediately after flowering (flower buds arise the year before they flush, and will form on the new growth).
• Trees susceptible to fireblight – these trees, including many varieties of crabapple, hawthorn, pear and

  mountain ash should be pruned during the dormant season.

• Flower in the summer or fall – prune during the dormant season (flower buds will form on new twigs during the next growing season, and the flowers will flush normally).
• Dead branches – can be removed any time of the year.
• An alternate method of conifer pruning is to cut back no more than half of the current years growth after it is hardened off in July though August in Ohio.

Use the following decision guide for size of branches to be removed:  under 2” diameter – go ahead, between 2-4” – think twice, greater than 4”- have a good reason.