BASIC PRUNING GUIDELINES

After working over some dogwood trees I was going to write to that topic. As the season progressed I saw a greater need to write about general pruning. Most importantly I would caution all gardeners about the hiring of so-called experts. Easy pickups I say. Having a pickup truck and a chainsaw does not make an arborist. Never hire someone who stops and tells you that your plants need pruning and that he will do it right away. Ask and check for references. Best yet … go see their work. If their top pruning is like this pass! New York City has even created a "Citizen Pruner" license .... Please read! With 28 years of pruning experience I am appalled. That said, our own city licensed gardeners are equally incompetent, yet they can leave three foot stubs on Garry Oaks and get paid for it. :-(

When hired, ask them to sterilize their tools. Alcohol, TSP, hydrogen peroxide will do. In dealing with dogwoods, maples, cherries or most other deciduous material the tools should be sterilized between trees. A simple spray mister will do the job.

A few general guidelines:
1. Start pruning smart. When the plants are young and the future form can be established.
2. Envision the plant shape and your final goal before you start. Proper spacing of limbs should be planed, with an eye to the size of the final girth, NOT the size it is at the moment.
3. Time your pruning to the type of tree, weather conditions and ability to spray.
4. Begin with dead wood and everything that is diseased and open up the inside of the tree. Sterilize with alcohol, hand sanitizer, even mouthwash. Use of bleach or TSP will need oiling of the tool.
5. Always use sharp tools and make cuts without leaving stubs, but do not cut into the collar of the tree. I was about to caution about cheap knock off pruners such as the 2.99 pruners at Rite-Aid. I thought they might be cheap Chinese imports. Turns out I ended up by buying one for root pruning. I lent it to a customer I was teaching and found out how sharp it was indeed. Peroxide and bandaids should always be near at hand. Duct tape as well.
6. Always be aware of timing. Although most deciduous trees can be radically pruned in Feb. Japanese Maples and Pines are better pruned when the sap movement is slower. Summer-Fall. Dead wood in Japanese Maples can and should always be removed, at any time of the year.
7. Water sprouts, crossover branches and strong V’s should be removed. Large limbs should always be cut a foot away from the tree ... then only cut off at the trunk.
8. The best pruning accomplishment is when the tree does not look like it has been pruned. Hard to do.

Reasons to prune

Foremost, one prunes to control plant size and to shape the plant to meet the needs of your garden. Sometimes this can be reducing the size of the plant or actually making it more upright to allow other plants to grow beneath. Pruning branch and leaf growth back after transplanting can also make up for root loss. Sometimes this can be overdone. Good staking or in the case of Bonsai, wiring of the root ball can be just as important. All such interventions should be removed in due time.
Pruning will also aid in increasing the health of the plant. This is especially true of fruit trees. Fruit production will be increased. Removing dead or tired wood such as in blueberries will also create healthier new growth in the next season.
Pruning maples and other brittle trees may also minimize damage to snow, wind or ice damage. Bad crotches that split may not just mean the loss of one limb but of the body it was attached to as well. Leaves on Acer dissectum should be removed before winter. The cleaning of leaves both above and on the ground will assist you in being able to spray a dormant spray to combat disease. This should be done in early winter as well as be repeated in the spring. Oil sprays can be used in-between to address insect issues.


Myths
It is hard to learn. Hire someone who can show you the basics and once shown that can be laid to rest.

Killing or removing a tree is a crime against Gaia. If you have a totally diseased tree or it is in the wrong place, or simply was given to YOU to bring back to health, consider your own needs first. One has only so many hours a week to take care of your plants. Concentrate on what is valuable and delete what is necessary. As we grow older, tough love is a must. And no one will inform Plant Amnesty.

Timing. All pruning needs to be done in the winter and or if done at the wrong time of the year they will die. Walnuts and some other bleeders might actually be more damaged during winter pruning. Magnolias for one prefer summer pruning, if necessary.

Pruning paint. All surfaces need to be painted. The use of petroleum-based tars is actually harmful to the tree, encouraging bacteria under the surface and prevents the cambium to seal the wound. There are other products on the market and even specific paraffin based paints or Vaseline can be a better alternative. I am going to experiment mixing the paraffin paint with some potters clay to make it look more 'natural'.

There is much more to learn. Timing may be the most misunderstood and I will talk more on this issue on our website, Monthly Notes, but always remember that even if you make mistakes it will usually not mean the plants demise, but simply a hiccup in next years growth or floral display and an incentive to learn and do better. Sometimes even experts make mistakes.



http://sites.google.com/site/dungenessbonsaisociety/

(C) Herb Senft

WINTER CHORES

What's New/To do for Winter --What to do in the garden

December and January is a great time to begin working on a compost bed. Spread soil over layered composted material. Rake up any plant debris that can harbor pests. Make sure mulching is done.

Take hardwood cuttings of many shrubs. Root cuttings can also be taken from trees and perennials. primula's, oriental poppies, acanthus, staghorn sumac etc.
Start working on that rock garden that you haven't yet built.

Winter is a great time to gather stray rocks.

If you have heavy soils, this is a good time to spread coarse sand or gravel to help soil texture when dug in next spring. Gypsum can also be beneficial

Order your flower seeds. Complete the planting of roses and deciduous trees if soil conditions are favorable. Prune and train your climbing vines.

Make sure your healed in bulbs are protected from freezing.

January is also a good time to begin the construction of physical structures, beds, paths or other features. Remove what is no longer needed.

Protect your pond, esp. if concrete. Take out filters and if the weather is cold put in a pond heater. Submerge tender pond plants such as papyrus so they cannot freeze. Floating rubber balls in the pond can also help prevent freeze damage.

In February summer blooming clematis can be hard pruned, so can wisteria and grapes.
If the weather is mild, begin to plant hardy perennials. Plant your lilies in late Feb. March.

Start cleaning up your plants. In the rock garden, mulch with a fresh top dressing of sand, grit and leafmold.

In your fruit garden
Rhubarb Lift and divide, or plant new varieties in rich, deep soil.
Finish planting and pruning your trees and bushes .
Do not do so in severe freezing weather. Burn all prunings, and make sure your shears remain sterile.

Dormant oil spray fruit trees, weather permitting.
Inspect stored fruit and remove the spoilage.
Apply a winter fertilizer to strawberries, gooseberries and currants.
Prune back gooseberries to two or three buds. Prune blueberries, selectively removing about a third of the oldest shoots.
Start fertilizer applications on fruit trees. Make sure young trees are mulched.

February can bring some of our coldest weather.
Prune to the ground all fruited autumn fruiting raspberries. Tip summer fruiting varieties.
Protect or cover with fabric cloth your strawberries. Begin work on your blackberry/cane fruit.
Be prepared to start spraying copper fungicides or lime sulpher -- next month.

In the vegetable garden
Continue harvesting your root vegetables, mulch the carrots and parsnips against freezing. Plan next years garden. Clear any spent vegetables, weeds, apply mulch and manures.

I often cover some of my garden areas with polythene, held down with two by fours or rocks. This will keep the soil dry and friable for later tilling. The same trick applies to where one wants to plant dormant trees. Often the soil is so wet that is hard to plant. Cover your proposed planting areas in December with such material, and when the plants arrive you can plant! The soil will also be warmer.

If you have vegetables under cloches -- protect from freezing.

In February start sowing cool season spinach, plant shallots. Place seed potatoes in a light and frost free place, allow to sprout. Begin to fertilize the vegetable garden with a 5-10-10 type fertilizer.



"Winter sounds like a warm fire crackling.
Winter looks like thousands of diamonds on the ground.
Winter feels like cold faces and hands.
Winter smells like cold, fresh breezes.
Winter tastes like warm chocolate chip cookies dipped in hot chocolate."

Sarah Davidson

Winter is a time of glistening berries, hollies bedecked, Pyracantha that beckon to the birds. It is a time to take pleasure in the patterns of frost upon leaves. Their may be few flowers in this season but the seed heads of clematis, ornamental grasses still grace the garden.

The reds of Nandina, Bergenia and many others are brought by the winter cold. So are many other variegations. One garden here in Sequim has few flowers, but come every winter does it ever stand out. It is a bright mixture of Eunymous, Red twig Dogwoods, Skimmia teamed with others lift the spirits.

Christmas Hellebore

In February Snowdrops (Galanthus) make their showy appearance, partnered with the winter- red leaves of Bergenia is a wonderful combination. Later when the bulb becomes untidy the foliage is submerged by the new leaves of the Bergenia.

It is also a time of magic for the grasses, the seeds heads are tawny gold and icicles of frost glow in winter light.

(c) Herb Senft

WINTER CHORES

OR BEST NOT FORGOT! --The Flower Bed

February is a mite shy in days, much less sunny ones, but it is the cusp between the last hardwood cuttings and the beginning of soft green ones.

Hardwood cuttings you can still take include: Camellia, Daphne, hydrangea, holly, lilac, Oregon grape, wiegelia and willow. Late February: Soft green cuttings can include forced dahlias. Plant in a greenhouse situation, then in March begin snipping off growth as it emerges from the tubers. Aubretia, armeria, coral-bells, dianthus, perennial lobelia and sedums are all good green cuttings this month and next.

Like the dahlia, delphiniums and aconitum can be greenhouse forced into March propagatable growth. A good indicator for successful cuttings is when you see white hair roots on the basil nodes of the plants.

Divide and replant crocosmia or montbretia in enriched soils. Ornamental grasses also divide well at this time of the year. Some bulbs such as Snowdrops are very dividable during or right after their bloom. Don't worry about the green foliage!Depending on the weather outlook, over wintered plants like geraniums, fuchsias and rhodohypoxis be fed and positioned to receive more light

Top dress rockeries with sharp sand or grit. If soil is needed use a compost of equal part's leaf mold, loam and grit.

Trees and Fruit If soil conditions permit, continue planting fruit trees and bushes. See that your soil is not overly wet or claylike, as it should be friable enough to settle firmly around the new roots. Sometimes I recommend pre-digging the holes (covering them for safety's sake) then tarping the soil to dry it out. The trees or berries can wait -- or heeled in) as they would at the nursery.


When buying bare root fruit trees, try to get real ones, not those wrapped in skimpily plastic tights. Two reasons: roots need to be proportional to the tree. What you get in a bag are root amputees! Some trees like Peach, Cherry or Walnuts have massive root systems that are not easily bagged. Second, these carefree bare rooters are often displayed as to be frost and heat vulnerable. Just feel those bags on a sunny winter day! Do ask about roots! If your nurseryperson cannot answer rootstock questions, find another.

Apricots can be on three different kind of peach root, or two different kinds of plum -- rarely on apricot. Peach forms a larger and more unbaggable root system, and does better in dryer soils than doe’s plum. There are different cherry under stocks as well. All have definite cultural preferences, and size and longevity of the eventual tree are very dependent upon those rootstocks.

It's hard February or March pruning for buddleias and honeysuckles. Prune hydrangeas to just above the place last years growth began. Fertilize with 1 Tbs. (only) of Aluminum sulfate if you want them blue. Lime for Pink. Aluminum sulfate painted on greenhouse tables also deters snails and slugs.

Spray dormant canes, peonies and shrubs as well as fruit trees. Ask about the difference between sulfur spray and copper. Some trees and shrubs are very particular! Apply wood ashes to your roses and to your fruit trees. Poly-tunnel strawberries, or cover with reemay cloth for earlier harvests.

(C) Herb Senft