To Prune or Not To Prune

August 02, 2012

Pruning is one of those garden tasks that I always seem to put off as long as I can. Quite frankly, I’m intimidated by the whole prospect of cutting bits and pieces off of my plants. What if I cut off the wrong branch? What happens if I prune a shrub at the wrong time of year? It’s enough to make me want to hide my pruners in the back of the garden shed for the season.

I have a very overgrown Weigela shrub in my backyard. I shear it off every year of two so I can see out the kitchen windows, but it looks messy and uneven now. There are no branches down low, just naked trunks. All the foliage and flowers are at the top of the shrub. I know I need to do some serious rehab work on this bush to get it looking good again, but I’m not sure I know where to start.

I found a book while browsing the gardening section here at MCPL that I think will help me solve my pruning problems. It’s called The Pruning Book, and it’s written by Lee Reich. It has a lot of diagrams and photographs to help prune every kind of shrub you can think of. There’s even a section on pruning old, neglected, and overgrown bushes. Maybe in a year or two, my Weigela will be back to its former glory with a little help from the Library.

Heather C.
Lee's Summit Branch