Pruning Tips
Learn when and how to prune for healthier, more beautiful plants.
Pruning Tips guides
Pruning Basics: When and How to Cut
When to prune trees and shrubs, how to make a clean cut, the three-cut method, and how to renew an overgrown shrub — from university Extension guidance.
PruningWhy Pruning Figs in October Will Delete Next June's Harvest
Those little bumps on last year's fig wood are the breba crop — next June's first figs, already set. One October snip deletes them. Here's when to actually prune.
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PruningWhen to Prune Lantana: Fall Blooms and Frost Timing
Find out when to prune lantana, what to do after frost, and how to handle an overgrown plant without cutting short its fall flowers.
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PruningWhen to Prune Persimmon Trees Without Losing Fruiting Wood
Learn when to prune Japanese persimmons, why branch tips matter, and how selective cuts protect fruiting wood without a uniform haircut.
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PruningDon't Cut Brown Fronds Off a Freeze-Damaged Palm Yet: Why Leaving Dead Leaves Protects the Heart (And When to Prune)
After a freeze browns your palm, resist the tidy cut. Those dead-looking fronds help insulate the apical heart until freeze danger passes and new green growth appears.
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PruningLeave Garden Mum Stems Until Spring—With These Exceptions
Learn when to cut back garden mums, how planting time and drainage affect winter survival, and what to do with mums in pots.
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PruningWhen to Cut Back Peonies: Fall Cleanup by Peony Type
Keep healthy peony leaves until they die back, then clean up. Learn how fall pruning differs for herbaceous, tree, and intersectional peonies.
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PruningDon't Seal Rose Pruning Cuts: Why Wound Paint Traps Moisture and Makes Cane Dieback Worse
Planning to brush pruning sealer or wound paint onto freshly cut rose canes? For generations, gardeners treated pruning cuts like human injuries needing a bandage. But modern plant pathology proves that sealing rose cuts actually prevents natural healing, locks in fungal moisture, and dramatically accelerates cane dieback. Here is why clean cuts and open air allow roses to seal themselves naturally, what university extensions recommend, and how to prune your bushes safely.
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PruningWait to Prune Photinia and You Chop Next Spring's Red Flush (Why You Must Shape in Early September)
Thinking about waiting until spring to give your overgrown red tip photinia hedge a haircut? That single delay is why so many gardeners miss out on the fiery scarlet foliage they planted it for. Here is why shaping Photinia Ă— fraseri in early September locks in next spring's show-stopping red flush.
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PruningWhy Pruning Lilacs in September Will Delete Next May's Flowers (And When to Actually Cut)
Thinking about giving your overgrown lilac bush a quick September haircut to tidy up before fall? Put the shears down. Cutting lilacs in early autumn physically deletes next May's blooms before they can ever open. Here is the botany behind old wood blooming, and the exact window to prune instead.
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Pruning7 Pruning Mistakes That Are Killing Your Plants (And How to Fix Them)
Are you accidentally ruining your shrubs, roses, and trees with your pruning shears? Avoid these 7 devastatingly common pruning mistakes gardeners make every spring—and learn the right techniques that guarantee a healthier, more beautiful garden.
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