Proper Pruning
February and early March are the best times to prune. Include laurel cherry, camellia, sasanqua, pittosporum, elaeagnus and glossy abelia. It’s a bad idea to prune most hedges into formal shapes. Better to prune just enough to keep plants in bounds.
In general, vines require much less pruning than shrubs. But vines planted for specific purposes may need pruning quite regularly. Tie up or cut off wandering limbs to induce more growth in another area. Prune vines to allow more light into center of the growth and to remove dead, diseased and injured wood. It’s best to prune flowering vines right after they have bloomed so you won’t be removing flower buds later.
Charles Penninger wrote to advise us that winter pruning of muscadines actually results in more winter kill. He suggests pruning muscadines in the spring and letting them bleed. The bleeding will not hurt a thing.
Spring-flowering shrubs need special treatment—very little pruning, except thinning. Prune severely this year and you will probably see less blooms next year. If you must prune, do it early—right after blooms appear.
To produce well-shaped plants, young Camellia japonicas may need some pruning before they begin flowering. Older plants are pruned to remove dead or diseased branches and to limit plant size, especially those in foundation plantings. Prune plants after they have blossomed but before new growth begins. You can prune when you cut blossoms for indoor use in floral designs. Since flower buds are set on new growth during the summer, you won’t lose any blooms from pruning. Remove individual branches at a point within the plant—never shear a camellia.
Pruning cuts longer than 1/4-inch in diameter should be covered with a good wound dressing to prevent disease entrance. You may want to thin branches on a plant with dense growth. Heavily shaded limbs produce very few flowers, and they harbor scale and other insects. Thinning makes insect control easier and also opens the plant up, exposing more leaves to light, and producing a healthier plant.