Rejuvenation Pruning Suggestions for Overgrown Shrubs

The gentle days of winter provide gardeners a chance to are likely to duties which are finest performed when the panorama is dormant. A type of duties is the rejuvenation or renovation pruning of shrubs. This sort of work is just not for the timid, as it’s slightly aggressive. The aim of this process is to take an overgrown or poorly shaped plant and selectively take away a considerable quantity of its construction to encourage a renewal of wholesome development within the spring. All pruning encourages new development; rejuvenation pruning ends in strong development. When correctly executed, shrubs could be given new life and preserve their pure kind even when gotten smaller. Quite a lot of species lend themselves to this method, and I’ve labored on many viburnums (Viburnum spp. and cvs., Zones 3–9), lilacs (Syringa spp. and cvs., Zones 3–8), mock orange shrubs (Philadelphus coronarius, Zones 4–8), and burning bushes (Euonymus alatus, Zones 4–8).

Why prune throughout the dormant season

Winter pruning is useful, as most shrubs are naked or have lowered leaves, making the general construction of a shrub in addition to any points with development simply seen. Every of those points wants consideration, with choices made as to how finest to appropriate the issue. This isn’t the time for concern about saving spring-flowering buds, or about whether or not a plant is blooming on new or outdated wooden. We have to be centered on rejuvenating the shrub and be ready for fewer flowers the primary season after this work.

close up of crossing branches on a shrub — Crossing branches will rub and create a wound in your shrub. Considered one of them must be eliminated.

To get began, search for these points in your shrub

First, collect your instruments, which ought to include a very good pair of hand pruners and a minimum of one pair of loppers, all sharpened. You probably have very giant limbs, a pruning noticed could also be crucial. Take a step again and take a look at the general kind and measurement of the shrub. Contemplate how the shrub seems in comparison with the species customary and the way properly this shrub matches within the area the place it’s rising—primarily, is that this plant performing the best way you need it to? I name this the “huge image” evaluation. You must also search for any problematic development. This contains:

Crossing or rubbing branches
Misshapen, distorted, or misdirected branches
Suckers
Lifeless or broken branches

If that is the primary rejuvenation pruning in your shrub, you’ll absolutely discover that plenty of work must be performed.

Burkwood viburnum before rejuvenation pruning — Earlier than pruning, this Burkwood viburnum had a dense branching construction that was encroaching on close by boxwoods (*Buxus* cv., Zones 4–9).

Instance: Pruning an overgrown Burkwood viburnum

The Burkwood viburnum (Viburnum × burkwoodii, Zones 4–8) in my backyard had overgrown its spot by the patio. I’ve made some extent of giving it a very good clip to maintain it in bounds after it blooms every spring, however that has simply not been sufficient, and it was time for extra in depth work. I began the pruning course of slowly by bringing within the sides the place branches encroach on a path or different plant, pruning again to a bud heading within the path I would like the brand new development to go. (Cuts needs to be made at completely different ranges alongside the department in order that new development is staggered inside the shrub.) I then thinned out clusters of twigs so there can be extra air and lightweight reaching the middle of the shrub, encouraging inside development and a wholesome surroundings.

leaves stuck to jacket — Ensure to not put on a jacket or shirt with clinging cloth that may maintain on to leaves or twigs.

Branches rising backward into the middle of the plant had been subsequent: I eliminated or pruned them to redirect them to move to the skin. Working with this semi-evergreen plant disturbed the leaves, which fell and made the branches extra seen. (Put on a easy jacket otherwise you threat the leaves sticking to you.) I then in the reduction of new development to encourage branching and pruned outdated development to scale back peak and drive new development at decrease ranges.

Burkwood viburnum with pruning almost done — When the pruning course of is completed, the shrub has a way more open behavior and can develop vigorously as soon as spring begins.

After I was lastly completed, there was plenty of air and room to develop the place a mass of branches had stood solely an hour earlier. It could appear to be a brutal assault, however by midsummer this Burkwood viburnum shall be lush with new development on account of one afternoon’s efforts. This strategy has sacrificed most of the blooms for this spring, however will probably be value it in future seasons. As I inform my shocked purchasers, I’ve performed this earlier than and the shrubs all the time come again higher than they had been.

close up of branch cut — Chopping simply above dormant secondary buds will make them major buds come spring.

For extra tips about pruning shrubs, try Superb Gardening‘s pruning undertaking information. And for extra Northern Plains regional studies, click on right here.

—Marti Neely, FAPLD, owns and operates Marti Neely Design and Associates in Omaha, Nebraska.

Photographs: Marti Neely