A properly pruned shrub is a work of art and beauty and does not look as if it has been pruned. Pruning cuts should not be visible but located inside the plant where they will be covered by remaining foliage. 

The first step in pruning a shrub is to remove all dead, diseased or injured branches. Remove branches that cross or touch each other and those that look out of place. If the shrub is still too dense or large, remove some of the oldest branches. This can be done by pruning techniques called heading back, and thinning. Do not use hedge shears.

Heading back is a process of cutting back excessively long branches to a bud or lateral branch that is 6 to 12 inches below the desirable plant height. Buds are located at a point on the stem where old leaves were attached. They appear as a swollen bump on the stem. Cut 1/4 inch above a healthy bud or side branch. Make the cut on a slight slant.

Pinching is a type of heading back of young shoots. You can use your thumb and forefinger to remove the stem tips of new growth. Pinching the tip of shoots and branches encourages side branching. Pinching helps keep shrubs bushy, and compact. 

To provide a more natural form, branches should be cut back to varying heights. This random heading back of branches will encourage new growth throughout the shrub. Pruning cuts also tend to be concealed using this method of pruning. Your plants will look great without ever being able to tell they've had a Ahaircut@.

Thinning is the complete removal of branches back to a lateral branch or to the main trunk or to the ground. Depending on how the plant is thinned, thinning can give a plant an open appearance or can encourage new growth inside the crown. If thinning is heavy, interior sprouts will develop. Shrubs are thinned primarily to control size while maintaining a natural appearance. This technique differs from hedging or heading to the same spot on all branches, which will give a shrub a formal, controlled appearance.

Rejuvenation is a drastic method of pruning old shrubs that have become much too large or have a large amount of non flowering wood. On single stem shrubs, rejuvenation is carried out over a period of three years by severe thinning out to the basic limb frame work. Multiple stem shrubs are rejuvenated by cutting back all the stems near ground level over a period of three years. Remove 1/3 of the old, mature stems the first year. The second year remove oneself of the remaining old stems. Prune back long shoots from the previous year=s growth. The third season remove the remaining old wood and head back the long new shoots. The best time for rejuvenation pruning is late winter or early spring. 

Basic tools used in pruning are hand shears, loppers, and hand saws. Hand shears are used for general cleanup, loppers for branches up to 11/2 inches in diameter, and pruning saws for larger branches. Both shears and saws are available on poles which are handy to prune difficult to reach branches.

Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-616-5161.
Material originally appeared in Arizona Daily Star gardening column, on February 21, 1999
Return to index