Prune With Care

When plants are crispy, brown and damaged from cold snaps, do you have the urge to prune your landscape?
If so, you are not alone. But the time may not be right. There are different seasons to prune depending on the type of plant. While some plants should be pruned during winter months, others should not.
Let’s explore the recommendations regarding pruning common landscape plants.
Trees that lose their leaves in the cool season should be pruned when dormant. January and February are good times to prune crape myrtle, chaste trees and many deciduous fruit trees. Pruning in the winter allows us to see the structure of the tree and make strategic pruning cuts.
Note that trees do not need to be pruned annually. Some—like crape myrtle—may never need pruning if they are planted in the right spot.
Many deciduous fruit trees need to be pruned every year to maintain a size that makes it easy to harvest their fruit.
Evergreen trees and shrubs such as juniper, cedar, podocarpus and holly can be lightly pruned any time of year because they do not go dormant. Frequent, light pruning two to three times a year serves them best. Heavy cuts made too deep in the shrub may prevent the plant from flushing back out, and cut branches will stick out like a sore thumb.
It is best to prune spring- blooming plants after they are finished flowering. Southern shade garden plants such as azaleas, camellias and spiraea fit in the spring-blooming category. Prune spring bloomers any time after flowering, but before July 4 as these plants begin to set next year’s blooms from mid-summer to fall. If pruned too late in the year, you won’t get blooms the following spring.
Herbaceous, tender and warm-season plants such as hibiscus, duranta and Persian shield should not be pruned until after the danger of frost.
In central Florida, the last freeze can happen as early as mid-February or as late as mid-March. For freeze dates specific to your area, contact your local UF/IFAS Extension at http://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/find-your-local-office.
When frost or freezes occur, it is best to leave the damaged material on the plant to protect tissue and prevent damage further into the plant. Prune tender plants once freezing weather is no longer expected for the season. When plants suffer damage from cold temperatures, wait and let the plant tell you where to prune. Do this by allowing the plant to flush out with new growth. Prune the stems back to just above the emerging leaves.
Generally, when any plant is in leaf, do not prune more than a third at any given time, to avoid excessive stress. However, there are always exceptions to the rule. With hybrid tea roses, remove weak dead canes and prune productive rose canes at a slant just above a bud eye growing in an outward direction. At our UF/IFAS Extension Lake County Discovery Gardens, we strip all the leaves off our hybrid tea roses. They flush out beautifully just in time our spring garden events.
Pruning at the correct time of year can improve structure, control growth and encourage beautiful blooms. If you are happy with the size, shape and blooming of your plants, you have it easy. You may not even need to prune at all! n
For more information on pruning, visit the University of Florida’s website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/topic_tree_pruning.