Denny's Soapbox

Time to Prune Damaged limbs from Early Spring Freeze

Let’s turn the clock back to April 1st of this year and recall how many of our flowering trees and shrubs were being forced into bloom and new leaves were expanding. This growth spurt was due to the 80˚ weather we were enjoying the last week of March. Along came April 4th and overnight our temperature dropped 50 to 60˚ exposing some plants in the Tristate to overnight temperatures in the upper teens to the low 20’s. This was not a frost occurrence but a serious freeze. Every tree, shrub, and perennial showing any new blooms or leaves was damaged by this cold weather. There were some plants i.e. Japanese Maples that lost all their existing new leaves. Many nursery persons thought that those maples along with several other plant varieties had gone to heaven.

What happened?

True, there were many plant varieties that had a lot of twig death on some branches. Lots of leaves that had started to form early due to the warm weather fell off after the freeze. Then the miracle of nature kicked in. Many living plants sensed they had suffered some die-back. They needed more leaves to provide adequate food for themselves. These plants put on up to 3 times more new growth than normal. Most trees and shrubs that suffered some freeze damage look very healthy now.

Now’s The Time to Prune

If any of your trees and shrubs have gotten larger than the space you’ve allocated for them, now is when you want to prune. This is especially true for any trees and shrubs that bloom in the spring. These plants set their bloom buds in the fall and should be pruned back no later than next weekend.

Pruning Flowering Trees

When pruning flowering trees to contain or to shape, prune away only the last 18 to 24 inches of the branches and no more. Prune off entire branches that are growing through the center of the tree or touching another branch. Do not prune your tree just to prune it. If there’s enough room for it to grow, leave it alone. Like all trees and shrubs it won’t stop growing until the day it dies.

Pruning Shrubs

Go ahead and prune off any extra growth your shrubs have put on to keep them with-in their allocated space. If your shrub is 7ft. high and wide and you want to keep it at 6 ft., cut back all your stems to 5 ft. high and wide. Your shrub will continue to grow and wind up 6 ft by 6ft at the end of the growing season. Summer flowering shrubs will continue their bloom if you continue to prune off spent flowers. Some of the favorite shrubs that this re-bloom rule applies to would be Dwarf Spirea, Butterfly Bush, Hypericum, Hydrangea, and Rose-A-Sharon. Do not do any radical pruning to your deciduous shrubs, cutting them back to 18 inches from the ground, do that pruning next March. Doing radical pruning next spring will make any leafy shrub full and will be looking brand new by the first of June.

Pruning Causes More, Not Less

Many home owners believe that the pruning of any plant is a dwarfing process, making any given plant smaller than it was before pruning. While this is temporarily true, pruning actually stimulates more growth than it already had. It’s the “prune one branch, get three new ones” rule. Before you prune any branch ask yourself, “Why am I cutting this branch and where should I prune it”. Use a hand held pruner and not a hedge shear. You will make proper individual cuts and not a handful of possible bad cuts like you could with hedge shears. Do not prune any tree or shrub in September or October. Pruning during this time frame could cause new growth to form which wouldn’t have time to mature before damaging cold weather arrived in the late fall.