Pruning – 5 Reasons For Pruning Your Trees and Shrubs

Pruning is a crucial step in the overall care of trees and shrubs. Proper pruning can improve the health of plants, help control or shape growth, and keep plants within bounds. It can also enhance a landscape, increase beauty, and in some cases even reduce risk to people or property. However, it is important to prune with a purpose and a plan in mind. Without this, pruning can be a labor-intensive and costly undertaking for the homeowner or gardener. Luckily, there are many helpful resources and experts available to help guide you through the process of properly pruning your plants and trees.

The main reasons for pruning include:

1. Remove dead or diseased plant parts.

This is the most critical reason for pruning and should be done on a regular basis as part of a consistent maintenance schedule. Removing dead or diseased limbs and stems allows the plant to focus its energy on new growth and minimizes insect pests. Pruning also allows the tree or shrub to recover from previous damage.

2. Removing branches that interfere with traffic, pedestrians, or utility lines.

This type of pruning is a regular part of most homeowner’s maintenance and helps ensure that the tree or shrub stays healthy and safe for the intended use of the landscape. This may include removing lower branches that are growing in toward the ground or hanging over an area where people or vehicles frequently pass.

3. Removing suckers or water sprouts.

Many suckers or water sprouts grow at the base of a tree or shrub and can pull nutrients away from the primary branches and lead to weak, unhealthy growth. This is often a result of improper training as the tree or shrub grows, such as topping or hedging. Pruning can often correct these problems by removing the water sprouts at their point of origin or when they start to overlap other limbs.

4. Influencing flower or fruit production.

Many trees and shrubs benefit from being pruned to encourage or discourage specific types of flowers or fruit. For example, the amount of fruit on peaches can be increased by making heading cuts in late winter or early spring. In some cases, pruning can also help the size of flowers on roses and the number of blooms on crape myrtle.

5. Maintaining form and structure.

Many ornamental plants benefit from regular pruning to achieve the desired form and shape of the landscape. This can be accomplished through thinning, raising or reducing, pollarding and creating specialized forms such as espaliers and topiaries.

6. Improve a view.

Changing the direction of a tree’s crown or decreasing its height can improve the visibility of buildings, streets, or other features of a landscape. This is usually a goal of homeowners in suburban areas with homes built close to or on the side of street curbs.

It is important to prune at the right time of year to minimize damage and injury to the plant. For spring-flowering plants, this means pruning after they bloom since they flower on wood that was produced during the previous growing season. Examples of these plants include azalea, rhododendron, magnolia, forsythia, and lilac. Summer-flowering plants, such as the autumn olive, beauty bush, snowberry, rose-of-Sharon, and viburnum should be pruned in late winter or spring before they begin their summer growth.

source https://treeaestheticswa.wordpress.com/2025/03/29/pruning-5-reasons-for-pruning-your-trees-and-shrubs/