Your garden. Your shears.
Pick a plant and a month. Get a clear answer: prune now, wait, or don’t, with the reason and an Extension source.
Free to use. Free to print. No account or email needed.
Measure twice.One plant. One month. One clear answer.
A little knowledge. A growing garden.
Most pruning mistakes aren’t bad cuts. They’re good cuts made in the wrong month: next spring’s lilac flowers snipped off in September, or a rose pushed into tender growth just before frost. This tool gives you the month first, then the how.
Spring bloomers like lilac, forsythia and bigleaf hydrangea set next year’s buds in summer: prune right after flowering. Summer bloomers like panicle hydrangea, butterfly bush and crape myrtle bloom on new growth: prune in late winter.
Hydrangeas, roses, clematis and raspberries each come in types with different timing. Choose yours, or pick “I’m not sure” for the safe answer and a tip on how to tell them apart.
Add a ZIP or USDA zone to shift the timing for your climate band. Dead, broken or diseased wood can come out any month, whatever the chart says.
It depends on when they bloom. Shrubs that flower in spring, such as lilac, forsythia and azalea, bloom on last year’s wood: prune right after they flower. Shrubs that flower in summer on new growth, such as panicle hydrangea, butterfly bush and crape myrtle, are pruned in late winter or early spring, before growth starts.
For these plants the type changes the answer. A bigleaf hydrangea pruned in March loses its flowers, while a panicle hydrangea pruned in March is right on time. If you don’t know the type, choose “I’m not sure”. You’ll get the safe answer and a tip on how to tell the types apart.
Often, yes. Fall cuts can push tender new growth that winter cold kills, and on spring bloomers they remove next year’s flower buds. Exceptions include cutting peony foliage after a hard freeze. Dead, broken or diseased wood can come out any month.
No, but it helps. Pruning windows shift with climate: a rose pruned in January in coastal California waits until April in Minnesota. Without a zone, the tool compares every climate band and tells you when the answer depends on where you garden. ZIP lookups use the Garden Calendar’s zone table.
Each plant’s timing comes from university Extension and state forestry guidance, including UMN, Clemson, Iowa State, Penn State, UF/IFAS, UC and Texas A&M. Sources are linked with every answer. Months are grouped into broad USDA zone bands, so local weather, elevation and the plant itself still have the final say.
Yes. Results and Print / Save PDF are free with no account or email. An optional name personalizes the sheet and stays in this page’s memory. The QR code holds only the plant, type, zone and month, never your name or ZIP.
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