Shrub Pruning

[Nickrosis]

Today, we had a speaker for our Student Society of Arboriculture meeting. Andy Sims was a Stevens Point graduate in 2000, works in the area, and teaches at the local technical college.

He did an outdoor demonstration today on shrub pruning that I found very interesting. One of the things he mentioned was "hiding" the pruning cuts. When I heard that, I agreed immediately, but he proceeded to make a couple very deep cuts to a lateral, following the 1/3 rule. Basically, he took out a few large pieces of this spreading juniper.

When I trim a juniper, I try to hide the cuts too, but I tip back the leggy parts to bring it into a more reasonable size and shape. The cuts aren't visible because they're small. JPS mentioned today that he will say "pick prune" a juniper on a proposal, and that's what spurred me to post this.

What do other people do when they approach a shrub for pruning?

Nickrosis

 

[Toddppm]

Depends on what it is , we pick prune only on azaleas and rhodos. We will not shear them. We do shear things like boxwood, jap. hollies, all depends on how much room they have to let them grow, we'll pick prune junipers if they're the spreading type but they usually get sheared on any other type.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

When I have shrubs that are geometric shapes and lend themselves to shearing, arbos/yews, etc. I tell my clients that I can prune for Density or Shape or some where in between. This description works well for clients. Generally those shrubs have hollows or thin spots that will take several shearings to fill in.

Tom

 

[Stumper]

Depends on the situation of course,but on overgrown junipers I offer overall reduction while retaining a natural/lacey look ("pick-pruning)as an alternative to shearing. Lots of customer opt fo that and are very pleased with the result. I have one customer who spends a few hundred$ per year with me that would not consider hiring anyone else-his wife likes everything natural, he hates stuff to be overgrown and I'm the only person they've found who can please them both!

 

[murphy4trees]

I always hand prune.... I haven't owned a hedge trimmer in over 10 years... borrowed one a few years back for a privet hedge and was thinking of buying one to trim a large privet hedge as part of a $3000 tree job. Still waiting to hear back from the customer.
My training is that natural is always the way to look except in a formal english garden...
Hedge trimmers are for landscrapers... and grass hoppers... they know how to cut (not prune).... so they cut bushes the way they cut grass...
lollipops and boxes and ice cream cones.. does nothing for me..
Then the outer 6" gets so thick that there is nothing growing in the inside... These plants can usually be salvaged.. and it takes a while on the larger ones. Popping a few holes to let light into the interior, which will then start new shoots.. then come back next year or two for other prunings until it begins to look like a bush again.
The following pictures are from the pruning of an arboretum specimen yew we pruned last spring.. not a good example of the rejuvination technique described above and they're good pics..
God Bless All,
Daniel

 

[murphy4trees]

prune yew... before

 

[murphy4trees]

another before shot

 

[murphy4trees]

During

 

[murphy4trees]

And after.
PS Was it someone on this sight that said "anyone can prune a 300 year old oak and make it look good"? ... I think that is true on this yew as well and though it took some time, I think it takes more skill to rejuvinate a shrub after it's been mangled with a hedge trimmer.
God Bless All,
Daniel

 

[Reed]

Looks good.

Although not a mainstay of the work I select, get a few requests every so often. I believe we as tree perts have some basic skills when we move to other plants. I have a few Bonsai I used to train. Years ago Stihl used to have a bar pruner that bolted onto the 020. Anyone remember that?

I was wondering if you chipped those yew branches. I collect tamoxafin every once and a while. Was thinking if you had another one to prune anytime soon, I'd like to get with you on holding aside some larger diameter stems.

 

[Jock]

Hedges

Hi Murphy...good work on the yew, here we have as you said english garden type hedges, and we need to use hedge trimmers, as no one would pay for the time to cut with secateurs, I use the stihl hl75 long reach trimmers on the large Cypress, privet, beech and thorn, dont always agree though, but as they say its the customer who governs the purse strings...Jock

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I try to pick prune most everything, but if the years and privet are shorn...

I don;t like doing it to juni's, I've seen too many clorotic ones that were cronicly shorn tight. I think the loss of apical bud and high pH associated with cement foundations causes root probelms in the genus.

 

[murphy4trees]

here's another big burning bush I pruned today.... hedge trimmer disease and old basalish pruning made for very tight room to do the job

 

[murphy4trees]

This pic shows the chaos and tight situation at the base... what a mess. Now the shrub looked ok when in leaf last year.. very thick... We'll lose the lollipop effect.

 

[murphy4trees]

working away... took some time

 

[murphy4trees]

here's the cleaned up lower section

 

[murphy4trees]

Here'sssss Johny

 

[murphy4trees]

all that brush and the layman could look it over and not notice anything missing

 

[treeman82]

Last fall when I was in Mark's class, he took us to some like 200+ year old estate out by Boston. He showed us a formal garden made out of boxwood. I believe he said that the plants are something like 160 years old. IF they were 2 feet tall that would be pushing it a bit. Apparently Mark's company goes in every 2 - 3 years and hand prunes them all. They take down the tops a little bit, as well as the sides and do an interior pruning as well. I think he said it takes something like 15 man days.

 

[ORclimber]

I went to a landscape conference 8 years ago and Oregons biggest landscape maintenance co. said they hand pruned everything. They had found that hand pruning and shearing took about the same amount of time, because shearing takes much longer to cleanup. And hand pruning looks a lot better.

I hand prune most shrubs, except arborvitae, and things that have been sheared before. I think that shearing is similar to topping in that once a plant has been sheared, it is destined to be a shadow of what it could have been.