Day 170: Tomorrow's Homework

Sustainable Gardening
Pruning Homework

Question #1:
You should prune your hydrangea after it flowers by removing the flower heads to the first set of buds. These buds will produce next year’s flowers as hydrangeas flower on last year’s growth. The main cut you will be making in this case is a heading cut in order to stimulate new growth from those buds .
Because your hydrangea is overgrown, however, you may want to make your heading cuts further down the stem, just above another set of nodes, at the height that you desire.
You may also want to thin the plant by removing 1/3 of all the stems in late Fall or early Spring (using a thinning cut) over the course of 3 years. In doing so, you will encourage newer, healthier growth.
Remember to thin out the oldest and tallest stems first, as well as any damaged or disease stems. (SG. Pg 85 and 86; Class notes.)

Question #2:
The Dogwood that you are describing (cornus stolonifera) is sometimes called “twiggy Dogwood” or Red-Osier Dogwood. It is the youngest stems that produce those beautiful red branches and as the branches get older they lose their brilliant redness. The best why to insure the shrub continually has bright branches is to cut it back hard in late winter or early spring just before it goes into active growth. (Right Plant, Right Place Pg.210)

Question #3:
Laurels can handle hard pruning so, come early Spring, feel free to trim your hedge to a foot or so below your desired height and width. New growth will shoot from the cut branches resulting in nice new foliage. To encourage more new growth in |”bald” or bare spots, reach into the shrub and selectively clip out individual branches. New shoots will grow from the cut stems. Do this every few weeks until the sparseness is replaced by young foliage giving the hedge a fuller bushier and denser look.
You may also want to shape your hedge in more of a rounded A shape so that sunlight can reach the bottom leaves, as well as to shed possible snow that might weigh down and break the branches in the winter months. (SG Pg. 98 and 99)

Question #4:
Coppicing is different from pollarding in that it involves pruning a tree or shrub down to the ground resulting in new stems growing from the base. Pollarding, on the other hand, is a pruning technique that is started once a shrub or tree reaches a certain height to keep it at that height. In this case you would cut individual stems to your desired height in order to encourage new shoots from the top of the stem. (Like we did with that smoke bush during our pruning practicum.) (http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Search.aspx)

Question 5:
The three D’s of pruning are Diseased, Damaged and Dead.