The Complete Guide to Landscape Design, Renovation, and Maintenance
by Cass Turnbull

PRUNING "MOUNDS"
You will recall that cane-growers are generally very tough; you can cut them totally to the ground and they will renew themselves by sending up new canes.

The group of shrubs I refer to as "mounds" are not quite as tough as that. But they can generally take some pretty serious selective pruning to reduce height and bulk without drastic results. I would say you can safely take out one-third of the total plant area without stressing the plant. Mounds are easiest of the three types to keep to a given height.

A mound's natural growth habit is generally just that. They tend to be wider than they are tall. Many send up canes like cane-growers (i.e., spireas); others are more twiggy and tree like (Viburnum tinus, Ceanothus, sp.); but they all have a more or less mounded look. Some people tend to shear them for this reason, but please don't. Most of them are planted for their flower show, which will be reduced or eliminated if you shear them. They generally have small leaves and short spaces between leaves on the branches (short internodes) and their branches are fine or soft, a habit which tempts people to shear them. They make nice informal hedges and mass plantings.

When pruning mounds, hide cuts down inside the plant. Your shrub will be shorter and tidier but natural looking.

Finding the Branches to Prune
Upkeep on these plants is quite simple. After they are through blooming, you wade into the group planting with hand pruners in one hand. You train your eye to pick out the very longest, most unruly strand or branch, grab it with your other hand, and follow it with clippers down inside the shrub, two inches to one foot below the general surface of the planting; then snip it out. If possible (some say it's a must) cut to a node. Now seek not the next closest unruly branch, but the next most unruly, too long branch in the vicinity. This is the grab and snip method! You wander around taking only the worst or longest branches. After cruising the whole area once, step out and look. Miraculously, everything will be tidier and shorter, but it will also look natural and unpruned. By the time the branches from the nodes to which you cut grow back up, they will be about the right height. By cutting to nodes you will not cause cut branches to die back, leaving unsightly dead stubs or cause them to sprout back in a snarl.

Stand back and judge your work; ask yourself if you're done. Does the shrub need to be shorter? Are there some uglies you missed? Is there dead wood, or are there weeds spoiling the looks of things? A good pruner is always standing back and seeing whether it's time to stop or to ask what else needs doing. Sometimes you may want to tip back (cut off the tip) a branch to a certain length. That's all right, too, but the more whole branches you leave, the better your flower display will be next year, and the more natural it will look.

More serious pruning of these shrubs should be done, also. You can do some every year as you tidy up. Or you can "sort them out" all at once. By "sorting out" I mean that you should remove some of the oldest canes to the base, especially ones clogging up the center, or twisting around other branches, or rubbing them. And as always, remove any dead wood, which will, trust me, improve the looks of things dramatically.

Abelias
And a word about abelias, shrubs which tend to send up rockets for new growth. The more you prune, the more moonshots you get, so go lightly. Light pruning in the late summer helps reduce this wild-looking regrowth, and, as I have said before, the older branches develop a more graceful arching habit. Often you find abelias with a sort of thick lower story and a cap of new, straighter, thinner top growth. The temptation is to cut it all back down to the mounded part, but this just perpetuates the problem and may keep the shrub too small. Instead, try to create more of a balance by opening up the shrub. Remove whole canes to the base, especially very long, leaning ones. Thin out the lower story, especially if it's crowded at the base or skirt. Then selectively grab and snip the worst of the top growth. Also tip back a few to promising side branches, and you've got a more uniform shrub. This is good general advice for pruning trees and shrubs. Instead of trying to remove growth that doesn't "match" the rest of the tree or shrub, make it altogether more uniform. Thin out some of the too bushy parts and head back (thus thickening) some of the too sparse or leggy parts. It is a longer lasting and better looking solution.

Choisya
A word about choisya--or Mexican orange (not mock orange). Choisya is a soft wooded shrub that breaks and freezes easily. A cold snap may cause branches to die back, even much later--perhaps next summer. But it is a tough plant, nonetheless, in that it readily sends up new growth from the underground root system and will easily "break bud" from branches cut back to any length. These buds will form new green leafy side branches in no time. So don't worry if you have to cut choisya way back at some times and in some places. Don't cut in the warm weather of fall, because you will stimulate new, soft growth that will freeze easily, but wait to prune it in the spring.

Escallonia
Escallonia will similarly break bud down the branch. If you cut escallonia back hard, it will look bare and ugly a little longer than choisya. However, the plant will assuredly return. Its new growth is also prone to freezing, so prune escallonia in the spring, as well.

If you choose to reduce the size of your mound type plant dramatically, be sure to do it to a few feet lower than you want it to be eventually, so that it has some room to grow back bushy. Or, if you prefer, put these plants on the five year plan and reduce them a little more each year.

Mounds are easy--just grab and snip.

SUMMARY
- Mounds are the easiest type to make shorter and keep small.
- Use the grab and snip method, hiding cuts down inside the shrub.
- Sometimes it is better to make a plant more uniform (thin bottom to match top, or vice versa) rather than to cut off all the "funny" top growth.

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