Five Common Pruning Mistakes, and How to Fix Them

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Have you ever pruned so ineptly that your tree or shrub looks like a caricature? Well, don't despair. Help is at hand for five common pruning disasters.

Danielle Sherry

You needn't weep for this weeping cherry, a victim of Mistake #3. It can be restored to its natural form with a few well-placed cuts.

courtesy of Erik Draper

Is this the best way to keep a tree small? Probably not. See Mistake #4 for the solution.

courtesy of Erik Draper

Have you ever pruned so ineptly that your tree or shrub looks like a caricature? Well, don't despair. Help is at hand for five common pruning disasters.

Photo: Danielle Sherry

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Pruning mistake #1
You keep snipping the tips
of your plants to keep them
in check.

	Prevent rampant regrowth and the oversnipped look by making a few large cuts, leaving just the most vigorous branch of the cluster.

Why it's bad: We sometimes think that too many large cuts will hurt the plant but that smaller cuts won’t harm anything. In reality, snipping the tips of branches (stubbing out) is one of the worst pruning mistakes you can make. Pruning stimulates the plant to grow, so when you snip the tip of one branch, four to six new branches take its place. This abundance of new branches happens because removing the tip of the branch also removes the apical (dominant) bud, which chemically inhibits the buds below from growing. When the profusion of new branches grows, the typical response is, again, to snip off the new branches—and so the vicious cycle of snipping begins.

How to fix it: Making a few large cuts—rather than a gazillion smaller cuts—is the best strategy. But if you are in the middle of a snipping nightmare, you need to allow all the multiple new branches to grow from below the pruning cut. At the end of the growing season (late summer to early fall), select the strongest and most vigorous branch of the bunch, making sure that it is growing in a desirable direction. Remove all the other competing branches back to the trunk, if possible, or back to the main supporting limb. This will ensure that the selected branch will have a dominant bud, preventing the branches below from growing back.

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Comments (5)

Grammasmith writes: Our loripedalum had ice damage and I think we messed up trying to prune the dead branches. Should we severely prune it back. Posted: 2:50 pm on May 1st

tatwood writes: loischen: Excellent points. I would add:

Never prune when you're angry! (like after that fight with your spouse). Bad things happen. Posted: 10:14 am on February 20th

loischen writes: I was very impressed with this pruning summary.
I have a few additional mistakes that peole make which I would like to add to the list of do's and don'ts.
Don't prune when you are tired, or distracted.
Dont' prune when you are drinking or drunk.
Don't prune at dusk or early morning when there is not enough light.
Don't prune when there are children around.
Use first class, sharp tools that do the job quickly and efficiently.(bypass for live wood, anvil for dead.)
Don't let a neighbor or friend prune for you unless they know as much or more than you know about how to do it.
Posted: 4:34 pm on February 8th

tatwood writes: 1000islandkathy - usually, yes, and early spring is the best time. However, if your lilac is very old, and of the type that is single-stemmed and tree-like, it could be a fatal error, since some old varieties don't have a lot of dormant buds to re-sprout. But most lilacs are very vigorous, with multiple stems of varying sizes. If this describes your lilacs, by all means cut them back to 8 to 12 inches. If you'd prefer a less aggressive approach, plan to remove a third of the oldest (thickest) stems over the next three years. After three years, your lilac will be completely rejuvenated and you won't have to look at a mound of ugly stubs in the meantime. Also, lilacs bear many dormant buds along their woody stems. You can cut them back to any height you'd like and you will get new growth from that point. Again, early spring, or right after flowering, is the best time for this. Lilacs flower on old growth, so if you prune before flowering you'll remove the flower buds. But if you don't mind losing this spring's blooms, go ahead and prune. When I want to clean up an older lilac, I start by removing the oldest stems at ground level. Then I remove any stem smaller than a pencil, then thin out and cut back the remaining growth. Any branch that's damaged or diseased should be removed as soon as noticed. I also remove branches growing toward the inside of the shrub. Lilacs are very forgiving, so go for it! Posted: 10:04 am on February 6th

1000islandkathy writes: Is it okay to cut very old overgrown lilacs to the ground
Posted: 9:30 am on February 6th

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