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The Complete Guide to Landscape Design, Renovation,
and Maintenance
by Cass Turnbull
LOOKING FOR DEAD WOOD
One of the great secrets of successful pruning, and the only rule
for all of the time, is: prune out the dead wood (it's also a favorite
adage of politicians). Dead wood makes an amazing subconscious impact
on the viewer: the landscape seems messy and dirty. I would estimate
that over fifty percent of my work involves pruning dead wood. You
cannot hurt a plant by cutting dead wood; there is no correct season
for such pruning; dead wood cannot possibly grow new leaves or add
any beauty.
Summer is a good time to prune out dead wood on deciduous things,
especially small-leaved, fine-branched plants: in the winter it
is much more time-consuming to sort out which branch is dead on
shrubs like deciduous azaleas, viburnums, and lilacs. In the summer,
you need only note which branches have no green leaves.
Signs of Dead Wood
New gardeners will have to train their eyes to see dead wood. I
can't stop seeing it. It see it on your house plants, I see dead
wood even when I'm going 55 miles an hour on the freeway. You can
tell if a branch is dead even in the winter, because the wood is
a different color from the plant's live wood and it is brittle.
Gardeners are always gently bending branches to see if they are
brittle and dead, and shaking them to see where they go. Sometimes
merely tapping the branches with your pruners will snap them off;
cotoneasters, for example, are easy to clean up this way. Another
tip off is that dead branches have dead buds. Any time of year your
healthy plants will have live looking, plump buds on the tips of
branches. Dead buds are smaller, browner, and, well, dead looking.
Dead or dying branches will sometimes have orange coral fungi on
them, sunken spots or wounds, or persistent dead leaves.
How To Cut Back Dead Wood
At first you will need to cut the branch back a little bit (branches
die from the tip back), until you find out where it is alive again.
Look at the inside of the part of the branch you just cut off by
looking at its cut end. If it's brown inside, it's dead. If it's
light tan surrounded by green or all green, it's alive. Later you
will just know. Equally important is pruning off any dead stubs
you may find. These stubs also have a profound effect on the overall
appearance of the plant. And finally, you can always nick the bark
with your pruners to see if the wood is alive or dead: if the area
just under the bark (called cambian) is green, the branch is still
alive; if black or brown, it is dead.
It is not possible to prune dead wood at a distance--you are going
to have to put on your grubbiest clothes, get on your hands and
knees, and crawl into the shrub! Now sit there and stare at the
branches. Spot the dead wood? Sometimes it helps to start from the
bottom and work up, following one branch at a time. Don't just take
the largest ones, get all the tiny twigs, too. Be patient, move
slowly. If you are in a hurry, you will not see what is needed,
and you will probably put your eye out, not to mention cutting off
some nice live wood. Keep in mind that this large scale cleanup
needs to be done only once--the task will be only a minor job in
coming years.
By now your underwear will be full of twigs and you should be feeling
about as awful as your shrubs have been. But when you have finished,
after, I estimate, between half an hour to two-and-a-half hours
per old shrub, then walk or crawl outside and see what you have
unveiled. I promise a miraculous improvement on any shrub, if you
just believe me and prune out the dead wood before you do anything
else. Most people ignore this part, and yet this is real pruning.
Using The Fan Rake
The second great professional secret is the wonders worked by that
little known tool, the fan rake. Raking out the leaves from under
trees and plants invariably makes things look enormously better.
If your plant has had blackened or scorched looking leaves, don't
use them in the compost, since they may have a bacterial or fungus
disease which is over wintering on the ground and getting ready
to reproduce next year. Using the fan rake may also destroy some
slug egg homes, too--slug condos, we used to call them at the Park
Department. In some situations, however, good gardeners will rake
leaves into the beds, the theory being that they act as a nice blanket
of mulch to prevent weeds from germinating and also that they will
decompose and make good compost for your soil. I guess ideally you
should rake out healthy leaves and then cut them up in a machine
called a shredder. Shredded leaves look nicer and will decompose
faster. Then reapply them to your yard. You decide which you prefer.
In any case, rake or push out the mess you just made pruning out
the dead wood.
Your Plants Will Thank You
Just a word or two on dead wood and plant health. When I was a
novice gardener I wondered what the big deal was about improving
air circulation and the health of shrubs, which the professionals
kept saying was the point of pruning. I thought the point of pruning
was to make shrubs smaller. I know better now. Your plants will
love you for taking out the dead leaves and dead wood. (They'd do
it themselves, but they can't move.) I have brought many plants
back from death's door by pruning out the dead wood. I don't know
how plants know, but they love it. Not only do they look infinitely
better, but they grow better and are able to ward off disease better
as well. Healthy plants simply look better. In fact, "healthy"
is to plants as "fresh" is to fish.
So, be a hero or heroine: prune out the dead wood.
SUMMARY
Take out the dead wood. Do it first; do it always. Also, prune from
inside the plant and from the bottom up. Use your fan rake to remove
debris.ààThe signs of dead wood:
1. No leaves or dead leaves on dead branches.
2. Dead looking buds.
3. Wood is a different color.
4. Branch or twig is brittle.
5. "Cambium" layer just under bark is not green.
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