How to Prune Evergreen Shrubs

Unfortunately, most evergreen shrubs only get the once over with hedge shears, leaving problems to develop from inside the plant. It's important to remove dead, diseased or injured branches, and open the framework, enabling air to circulate through the plant.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Garden Shears
• Hedge Shears
• Electric Hedge Shears

1. Begin by pulling the branches apart gently and removing any dead, diseased or injured wood, twigs and branches that you find inside the framework of the plant. Cut into a suspected branch with your clippers; live, viable wood has a layer of green just under the bark, called the cambium, which is black or brown when a branch is dead. Injured wood is anything that has a visible wound or is discolored.

2. Clip away all of the "cat's heads", branches that have had the top portion of foliage pruned so many times that the resulting framework resembles a mass of twigs growing from the same branch. Ideally, you want the secondary branches to be opposing, or one on either side of the main branch.

3. Remove all crossing growth from the center of the plant. New growth will form, making the shrub bushy and full, soon after pruning.

4. Make all cuts back to a bud, branch or main trunk.

5. Thin the shrub by removing excess branches so that you can see daylight through the plant. By allowing light and air to enter the center of the plant, you will improve the general health and appearance of most shrubs.

6. Reduce the overall size of the shrub by pruning last year's foliage growth by one half or more.

7. Rake under the plant to remove any fallen leaves and twigs. Insects love to hide in plant debris.

8. Place a 3 - 4" layer of mulch under the shrub. Mulching will reduce the amount of water you need to use, prevent weeds from growing and make your garden look nice.

Tips & Warnings

• Evergreen shrubs such as raphiolepis, boxwood and holly all benefit from annual pruning.

• If a shrub is leggy or spindly, remove 1/3 of the growth, leaving some space on the stubs for new foliage to grow. Remove another 1/3 of the foliage every year until the shrub has regained it's bushy appearance.

• This type of pruning takes time, but will reward your efforts with a beautiful, healthy garden.