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The Complete Guide to Landscape Design, Renovation,
and Maintenance
by Cass Turnbull
PRUNING TREE-LIKE SHRUBS--SERIOUS PRUNING
In this section, we'll talk about tree-like growers. Rhododendrons
are tree-like. In fact, they are trees (rhodo means red, dendron
means tree). Other examples are pieris and camellias. Many deciduous
plants, like azaleas and snowball bushes, witch hazel and lilacs
are tree-like. They generally have stiffish branch patterns, medium
to large leaves, and large internodes. They grow from one main trunk
or group of trunks and branch many times. I call them tree-likes
because their habits are much like trees.
Treat Them Gently
Whereas "cane-growers" can be renewed by cutting them
totally to the ground, if need be, and "mounds" take some
serious thinning and lowering, "tree-likes" are not to
be dealt with heavy handedly. Heavy pruning and shearing places
a serious stress on some of these plants and can start them on a
downward spiral ending years later in death.
Others of these are prone to suckering. Suckers (also called "watersprouts")
ruin the good looks of these plants and should be removed unless
you want to train one into a branch in two to five years. (See Renovation
chapter.)
Do not prune tree-likes heavily and don't "head" or cut
off all the ends of the branches. Many of these deciduous plants'
star attributes are their winter branching patterns, which thoughtless
pruning destroys. The Japanese maple is king of these. In the winter,
raindrops hang onto the branches outside my window like a string
of pearls. When laced with snow, the tree is exquisite. Magnolias,
with their fuzzy buds, double-file viburnums with their very angular
(double-ranked when in flower) branches, and the arching cotoneasters,
are prime examples of growth habits which should under no circumstances
be altered by heading cuts. These cuts constitute a crime against
nature that is not easily undone. Avoid even selective heading.
Invariably these plants look better when branches are thinned out,
cutting a smaller branch off where it joins the larger parent stem.
Tree-Likes Like to be Big
Most of these shrubs are best left to grow big. Pruning on these
plants is most difficult of all the three types. Rules for pruning
them can and should be applied to other types as well. Restoring
plants of this sort which have been badly pruned is indeed an art,
and I will speak to that in the renovating chapter. The point of
pruning tree-likes is rarely, if ever, to reduce their size. When
you prune them you are trying to thin them out so that they are
open looking, less oppressive, more distinct. Thinning and pruning
the finely branched shrubs will enhance their good looks and you
will be able to "read" the branch pattern. You may need
to remove the interfering branches, ones that head out into the
sidewalk, touch the house, or lie on the roof, or crowd too far
into neighboring plants. You are then rechanneling the growth into
branches that can grow without interference. Only occasionally do
you head back a too-long or too-leggy perimeter branch to force
it to bush out down inside the tree-like shrub.
It is with tree-likes that the invisible and somewhat magical art
of pruning is most apparent. Shrubs and trees are no smaller, but
somehow they are transformed into less oppressive, cleaner, nicer,
more beautiful plants.
Click here for examples of good
pruning characteristics.
Getting Started
Again, put on your old clothes and crawl inside the shrub with your
hand pruners, loppers, and hand saw. Sit down and start staring
at your shrub's branch pattern. It takes anywhere from one-half
to three hours to prune an old tree-like shrub, so take your time.
First spot the dead wood and any stubs where a branch not cut at
the node (side branch or bud) has died back. Take it all out, even
the tiny dead twigs, cutting close to the main branch. In many cases,
dead wooding is all you need to do with tree-likes. This bears repeating.
In most cases, dead wooding is all you will have to do.
As for the rest of sorting out your shrub, start at the base and
work up and out, saving until the very last any size reduction of
the shrub by heading back branches.
In all cases except dead wood, you will want to cut out the worst
offending branches; rarely can you eliminate everything that is
going the wrong way. Do not remove more than, say, one-eighth to
one-fourth of the total plant in any one year. So, if you decide
to take out one big branch, don't take out all the little wrong
branches, too. Save that for future years. Generally, you are helping
the plant to attain its natural growth habit by removing branches
that rub or interfere with others. Remember, most cuts made in this
situation are true thinning cuts, taking small branches back to
bigger branches.
In general, prune to open up the middle, so as to enhance the natural
habit. If your shrub is horizontally branched, cut out some of the
branches that head straight up or down. If it's arching and floppy,
prune to enhance this shape. Frequently crawl back out to see how
things are going. It's easy to do too much. Once you start seeing
"wrong" branches, you want to take them all out and finish
the job. Some old mangled shrubs will have nothing left if you do
it all. As with a haircut, it's easy to take it off, hard to put
it back. So stand outside frequently and see whether it's time to
stop, or the shrub is unevenly thinned, or you've missed something.
The Overview (Click
here for the pictures)
Back to nuts and bolts: (1) take out dead wood, (2) take out suckers
at the base and any other straight up growth, (3) starting at the
base, look for any large branches that may be making the shrub too
crowded or that may be seriously twisting or rubbing around another
big branch. Taking out one big errant branch may solve a host of
problems. But be cautious, it may make things very bare. So study
your two entwined branches to decide which one stays, or whether
you must perhaps leave them. You may wish to look from different
sides and from the outside. Don't wait to do this until the very
last, because you may need all those other small branches for cover
when you take out a big one. So, early on, take out any big, crossing
branches. (4) Take back any branches that are hanging down on the
ground. (5) Take out the worst of the smaller, rubbing, crossing
branches, choosing the healthiest or best placed one of each pair
to remain. (6) Prune or shorten the worst of the branches that start
from outside of the shrub and go the wrong way back through the
center and out the other side.
Now, we are getting into some of the more artistic stuff. (7) Branches
naturally arrange themselves in layers, alternating around the trunk.
Each branch holds a network of smaller branches, generally on the
same plane in a more or less fan like pattern. Sometimes a branch
will send out a stray that heads too far up into the next plane,
or crossing two or more planes, or too far down. Pruning off these
will add definition to your shrub, thin it out, and make it look
more open. This is especially good for pines and camellias. This
is just something that makes things look a little better.
(8) You are nearing the end of the job now. Sometimes several branches
are doing the work of one. That is to say, you have two or three
branches that exactly parallel each other. It will look better in
many cases to remove one of two parallel branches, or the center
one of three. Parallel branches are disturbing to one's aesthetic
sense when they are close to each other. Dogwood trees, especially,
have doubled branches that may look better removed. (9) At the very
end, you may wish to head back, that is to say, cut off, the tops
of some of the taller branches to shorten them to a side branch
of your tree-like shrub. This should be done last. Frequently people
find that by thinning, sorting out and cleaning up the insides of
their big old shrubs, they no longer appear so oppressive and big.
Rarely is your tree-like too big. It's really just too confused
and cluttered.
In Japanese gardens, they carefully train their rhododendrons, magnolias,
and laceleaf maples so that there is a sort of see-through outer
shell and you can look inside to see the "bones" of the
plant, and the dappled light thus created is an added aesthetic
attraction. Use helpful lists to find out which plants take heavy
thinning and which do not.
SUMMARY
- Don't prune tree-likes very much.
- All plants will continue to grow to about twice their "mature
height." They finally stop at their "ultimate height."
Some plants are easy to control heightwise and some aren't.
- Tree-likes are the most complicated to prune and hardest to control
in size. Give them the room they need to reach their "ultimate"
size. Take out dead wood and little else.
- Avoid heading cuts.
- Thin offending branches (ones that hit the house, go too far,
or are most in the way) back to a larger parent stem or trunk.
- Sucker regrowth is an exact reflection of too much or the wrong
kind of pruning.
Punch List for Tree-Likes Take out:
1. Dead wood
2. Suckers from trunk, roots, or branches
3. Crossing/rubbing branches (the worst ones)
4. Branches hanging on the ground
5. Wrong-way branches
6. Too-far-up/too-far-down branches
7. Parallel branches
8. Head back to shorten (if necessary) on shrubs, not trees.
9. Tree-likes vary in the degree to which they may be thinned before
they sucker back or suffer dieback. Removal ranges from approximately
one-eighth to one-third total leaf area.
Forward to Pruning Hedges
Back to Pruning Mounds
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