Now is the time....to prune trees and shrubs

If you didn’t get a chance to prune your shrubs and small trees this fall before the snow arrived, now is the time to do it – before the plants begin to emerge from dormancy.

Even if you did prune in the fall, chances are that the heavy winter snows in January damaged some of your plants branches or stems.  In that case, here’s what you need to do. If the branches are snapped, make a clean 45-degree cut just above a node (a bud or side branch).   If they’re bent, but not broken, you can decide whether to wait and see if they will bounce back in the spring, or you can cut them off now.  Your decision may be based on how important the stem or branch is to the structure of the plant.

I visited one friend’s yard and one of her newly planted inkberry looked like a giant snow monster had stepped on it.  Inkberry can be cut back severely and respond with new growth, so that is what I recommended to her.

Here are some other pruning steps your plants might need:

·         prune lower branches from small trees  - particularly if they are in the way of other plants

·         thin out overcrowded and cross-branching limbs

·         remove any diseased or dead stems

·         prune branches on Japanese Maple to reveal their beautiful  framework

Another idea – use the pruned branches or other different color branches you can find to create a twig bouquet (above photo).  You would be amazed at how beautiful different color stems can look together.  If you include flowering stems (forsythia, dogwood, azalea etc.) keep your bouquet watered, you may be surprised with some forced blooms in a couple of weeks.