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Learn to prune at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens
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Eat your prunes. While most people turn their noses up at the shriveled little blobs, they were once a plump plum. What do they have to do with the garden chore of pruning? Like eating prunes, it’s good for you, and your plants. Often the last thing on our list because the task can be daunting if not a little confusing, take heart, Meadowlark Botanical Gardens will take the mystery out of pruning at a free demonstration Saturday March 14 at 10 am.
Before the buds burst is a good time to inspect the shape and health of not only trees but also shrubs and sub-shrubs, those inhabitants that confusingly possess both woody and herbaceous characteristics like lavender, Russian sage and scented geraniums.
Conceptually, pruning parallels haircuts. A good one is great, a bad one takes time to grow out. Plants are forgiving however and with a little instruction, some study and then giving it a try, you’ll get to know your plant. Plants don’t bite. But a good rule of thumb at this time of year is that if it’s going to flower soon, and you know who you are, let it have its shining moment and then play Edward Scissorhands.
George E. Brown’s book The Pruning of Trees, Shrubs and Conifers (published by Timber Press, second edition, revised and enlarged by Tony Kirkham) provides the interested gardener with clear and concise instructions on taking care of the plants described in the title. Mr. Brown who worked many years at Kew Gardens does not subscribe to the blow and go guys who leave any green shrub with a flat top. Rather, his detailed attention to nearly 450 genera will give the curious a life’s work and provide satisfying results, not to mention hours of staring at a mistake until it finally grows out, because mistakes are bound to be made.
According to Patricia Dietly, education specialist at Meadowlark, the demonstration will address the various plants common to our region and point out different techniques depending on new or old wood blooming habits. She encourages gardeners to bring pictures and questions.
Pruning tools, the toys we love, will be the subject of the next column.
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Photo Credit: Timber Press
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