Get Out There And Start Pruning Before It’s Too Late

Everyone who got all their pruning done this winter, raise your hand. I don’t see any hands.

Something about those bitter winds. And then the rain and sleet and snow. It all kept me from that old cherry tree I’ve had my eye on down at the Maryland farm. In the spring it sends a blizzard of pink blossoms to the ground, and its petals, to bare feet, feel like velvet. But it has more deadwood and crossed branches than a brush pile.

I also have to get to those grapevines, and the vitex, and the overgrown lilacs (you can cut the dickens out of them if you are willing to sacrifice blooms for a year’s worth of new growth). And that forsythia that has gotten as big as an elephant.

And I’m so sick of that scraggly privet, I think it’s time for a chainsaw massacre. Give it a buzz cut six inches from the ground and then go over the mangled stems with sharp pruners. Shovel on the compost and some aged manure to bring it out of its coma.

My mother gets nervous when I talk like this. No one in my family believes in the benefits of radical operations. You should hear the wailing that goes up when I get down on my hands and knees and disappear into the lilac forest.

Anyway. Just get out there and prune, before it’s too late and the buds break out and all that energy pours into making new leaves. If you saw off a branch from a tree now, it still has enough energy to callus over the cut and wall off healthy wood from any damaged tissue.

Winter is the best time to prune because you can see the shape of the tree that you are sculpting. And once you get over the fear of making a mistake (you’ll make plenty), you will probably suffer delusions of being some kind of artist, whose hand is improving the imperfections of nature. This is great fun, but don’t get too carried away or you’ll end up with a deformed stump.

If you have the opposite problem - timidity - tell yourself how resilient plants are and forge ahead. If you are pruning at the right time and following a few basic procedures, you will do your plants a favor by opening them up to light and stimulating new growth.

Say you have an old tree like our ornamental cherry down on the farm. First, eyeball it for branches that are dead or diseased. These should go, of course. So should any branch that is rubbing another branch and inhibiting its growth. Decide which of the two branches lends the tree a sense of balance and grace, and saw off the loser.

I use a curved Japanese pruning saw for getting into tight spots. If the branch is less than 2 inches in diameter, make one good cut with the saw - about a quarter-inch from the collar, or protective ring between the trunk and branch.

This is the branch bark ridge, a ringed bulge of xylem tissue that can seal itself off from fungi and possible disease, should anything (like a storm or a wild pruner) take off a branch.

It’s an absolute must to use sharp, clean tools and to make the cuts with reverence. Remember, you are operating on a living being, so be a worthy surgeon.

If the branch you are removing is larger than 2 inches, you may want to use a bow saw, making three different cuts. Start from the underside of the branch, about a foot from the trunk. As you cut, the weight of the branch will bind the saw, which is the sign to cut from the top, about an inch farther out.

As you cut into the center of the branch, it will break off (so make sure no one is standing beneath it). Now you have an ungainly stump sticking out from the trunk. Just saw it off, close to the trunk, but not so close that you injure the collar.

An old cherry or crab apple tree has a lot of character that rules which branches to leave and which to remove. But some trees have a sort of spiraling structure to their main branches, which means that you can lie on the ground and see them radiating from the trunk like the spokes of a wheel.

They should ascend in an alternating pattern, balancing the tree with their weight. If they aren’t evenly spaced, or if there is more than one branch emanating from the same growing point, get out your saw.

Cornell Cooperative Extension has a very good paperback called “Pruning: an Illustrated Guide to Pruning Ornamental Trees and Shrubs” by Donald Rakow and Richard Weir. You may order a copy by sending $5 to Tree Bulletin, Cornell Cooperative Extension, 1425 Old Country Road, Plainview, NY 11803.