How to Prune a Ligustrum Lucidum
Ligustrum lucidum is the botanical name for the broadleaf evergreen shrub more commonly called glossy privet. With its evergreen foliage, your ligustrum requires little and infrequent pruning, recommends North Carolina Cooperative Extension. However, when warranted, the shrub can tolerate pruning to keep it healthy and in good aesthetic form. Pruning in the later winter or early spring before new growth appears is the best time to prune, but light grooming pruning can be carried out safely anytime during the growing season. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Inspect the shrub for dead, diseased, damaged foliage and branches. Remove any of these that you find, cutting back to a point of healthy tissue or all of the way down to the crown if necessary.
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Trim back healthy branches that have become bare or defoliated with time. Place cuts down to a foot or less above the crown, to spur development of new leaf-covered shoots to fill in what was lost.
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Reduce the height and spread of the shrub by pruning back the terminal tips of the longest branches to the desired length, while still maintaining the general natural form of ligustrum. Place all cuts just above a lateral branch or leaf node.
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Tips & Warnings
Use secateurs to cleanly cut foliage and branches less than 1/2 inch in diameter and loppers to safely do the job on anything larger.
Be careful not to cut through the large glossy leaves when pruning, as this will mar the shrub with brown edges on misshapen leaves and give an unkempt appearance.
