Comments on: Mud Season Chores: Pruning

By: Pruning with a Reciprocating Saw — Cold Climate Gardening

Pruning with a Reciprocating Saw — Cold Climate Gardening — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:37:05 +0000

[...] is fine, when you’re talking about one forsythia or a couple of lilacs. But I’ve been eying an entire grove of Tartarian honeysuckle, an invasive shrub that has [...]

By: Kathy Purdy

Kathy Purdy — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:17:15 +0000

If I’m an expert, I’m a self-educated, learn-from-my-mistakes expert. I’m glad you found some reassurance from my post.

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:02:21 +0000

I hit my river birch a bit too late and had some minor sap flow, but I also know that ain't gonna kill them or anything. I've read horror stories about people mis-pruning their fruit trees, especially crabapples, and the lively water sprouts they get. I'm hesitant to cut back my dogwoods (Isanti) because they grow so slow anyway. Anyway, fun to hear an expert, and know I'm doing some things right in my 2nd year. Benjamin’s last blog post..Dr. Me

By: rosemarie

rosemarie — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:17:04 +0000

Great information on pruning – thanks so much. I had thought about pruning my Judd Viburnum’s last Fall but didn’t have time and was going to wait until after the bloom, but now I can probably do it (I’m in Zone 5).

By: Lynn

Lynn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:40:31 +0000

p.s. thanks for ID-ing red twig dogwood. It grows in the fields around us and I wondered what it was. The red is really striking. I wonder if it would transplant to the side of my ditch?!

By: Lynn

Lynn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:39:25 +0000

Sigh, I’d be out pruning if we had anything to prune. Took care of the one lilac early last summer after reading Margaret’s post. What is your opinion about chopped up leaf mulch put in the beds for winter? I’ve been pulling it back from plants that keep their leaves, ones starting to put out growth, and bulbs I find coming up. Does it matter? I don’t want to smother anything. Thanks for the mud season primer.

By: TC

TC — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:18:52 +0000

Why’d I have to read this now? Okay, okay, I’ll go do some pruning.

By: Mr. McGregor's Daughter

Mr. McGregor's Daughter — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:37:01 +0000

I completely agree with your methods. It is so much easier to figure out what to cut without leaves in the way. I prune everything during the winter or during “mud season,” except for the bleeders such as the Cladrastis kentukea. I hadn’t thought about the benefits to the plants from early pruning. Thanks for making me feel better about it.

By: commonweeder

commonweeder — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:15:00 +0000

The snow has melted enough so that I can finally get out to my fruit trees . When I can leave my daughter and her broken ankle later this week, the first thing I am going to do is prune.

By: Helen @ Gardening With Confidence

Helen @ Gardening With Confidence — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:18:08 +0000

Well done! I think we can get too caught up in the lost of some bloom, that we harm the whole. But when dispensing general guidance as I do in my blog, we tend to just to stay generalists.

As I put in my weekly journal, “I severely pruned the red twig dogwood” Not only was it getting wrangly, it had too much old growth – meaning loss of the red color. Why grow it if not for the red color?

At the JC Raulston Arboretum’s Winter Garden, I just pruned theirs too. Hard to do, but necessary.